Or maybe “Should Be A Critical Element…” Because American business by and large doesn’t really care about security very much.

Thanks to Bruce Schneier we learn that the Indians are pushing to get the encryption keys to RIM’s BlackBerry system. What this means is that the messages sent to BlackBerrys in the field could be decrypted by the Indian government. Strangely, only non-corporate users are at risk for now.

How long do you think it will be before other governments get the keys in exactly the same way as the Indians did? How long do you think it will be before a corporate user is thought to be enough of a security concern that even corporate users must turn over keys?

The reason why this is significant for the BlackBerry vs iPhone situation is that the iPhone works differently. It doesn’t pass all messages through a server. It behaves like a computer connected to the internet, with a regular email client. So, as soon as someone is allowed to create an email client with encryption capabilities we will have secure mobile email. Apple has released the iPhone SDK, and is expected to unveil applications along with an improved version of the iPhone in June. It might even happen that Apple builds encryption into the mail client themselves.

The problem for RIM is that there is no way to do full decryption on the BlackBerry without doing it on their server, at least with their current software. Creating this after making deals with governments to provide access will be impossible.

So, if you believe in having privacy, and you conduct business overseas, it looks like BlackBerry isn’t the best choice.

Actually, it came back on Sunday. The new password I set started working, and I could re-establish my Blackberry account.

Today I got an email from Google in response to my problem:

We’re sorry to hear you’ve had trouble accessing your mail. Please followthe steps below to resolve the problem:

1. Disable all mail clients you’re using to read mail. (If you use one atwork and one at home, please disable both.)

2. From the computer on which your logins are failing, visithttps://www.google.com/a/[your domain].com/UnlockCaptcha. Be sure to fillin your domain name in the URL.

3. Enter your email username and password, and the letters in thedistorted picture.

4. Once you have successfully logged in, restart your mail client and tryto access your mail.

So, if you’ve changed your password in gmail, and found that you can no longer log in via your mail applications, give the above a try!