Do BlackBerry makers have a secret code that would let police identify rioters?





They are accused of playing a vital role in helping rioters to plot the violence that blighted Britain.

But when The Mail on Sunday tried to question Twitter and the makers of BlackBerry phones about the sinister use of their technology, Twitter’s chief executive mocked us and a journalist was forcefully told to leave BlackBerry’s HQ.



Their apparent refusal to co-operate follows David Cameron suggesting moves to ‘stop people communicating’ via social media ‘when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality’.

Silent: Mike Lazarides, joint chief executive of Blackberry maker, Research In Motion was unavailable for comment about the sinister use of the BlackBerry Messanger service

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has insisted it will co-operate with the police investigation into claims that its virtually untraceable instant BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service was used to help rioters plot the violence and looting.

But it has refused to disclose whether it possesses an electronic ‘master key’ that could decode messages and reveal the identity of users planning anarchy.



Twitter has refused to say whether it is helping police to locate those who used its service to co-ordinate the riots or whether it has given details of users to the authorities.

The luxury home of Mike Lazarides in Ontario, Canada

Manchester Central Labour MP Tony Lloyd said: ‘What we need is an attitude that says they’re looking at being part of the solution, not part of the problem. They should be part of a debate that’s socially useful, not just one which makes them money.’

When our reporter visited RIM’s offices in Waterloo, Ontario, to try to talk to the firm’s wealthy founders, she was ordered to leave the site by security guards.

Mike Lazaridis, 51, the Turkish-born engineering genius who is the firm’s joint chief executive, was also unavailable for comment at his glass-walled mansion. RIM promotional material describes him as a ‘modern Leonardo da Vinci’.



Patrick Spence, RIM’s UK marketing director, was on holiday in Waterloo. His wife Erin said: ‘We heard about the riots. I’m trying not to think about it.’



The BlackBerry encryption system was devised by RIM scientist Hugh Hind. When a reporter phoned his home, a man was heard to shout: ‘Tell her there’s no chance in hell I will talk to her, ever.’



Riot police walk past a burning building in Croydon. south London during the third day of violence last Monday

Last year RIM, with a turnover of £2.2 billion, was forced to issue a statement denying it held a master key to decode encrypted messages.



Nigel Stanley, head of IT security practice at technology research consultancy Bloor, said breaking the code ‘is like trying to reassemble fragments of glass from a broken window . . . it would take thousands of years.



That leaves the possibility that RIM has a master key which would give it access to every message sent by BBM customers.



Twitter’s chief executive Dick Costolo declined an opportunity to defend the company against growing calls for it to be temporarily shut in the event of future riots.



Instead, Mr Costolo posted a series of tweets on Thursday mocking The Mail on Sunday’s attempts to reach him at home in ‘working hours’.



A burnt down, The Carpet Right building pictured after the riots in Tottenham last Sunday

He added: ‘We have coyotes and bobcats in the neighbourhood and they can smell visitors.’



On Friday night at his £2 million house near San Francisco, he refused our request for an interview, saying: ‘No, not tonight.’



Repeated attempts to contact several members of the board also received little, if any, response.



On Friday, we asked the public relations company which represents RIM whether the company stood by its statement of a year ago, which claimed it has no way of accessing messages sent via its BBM system.

