Encrypted PGP messages are the best way to communicate when doing business. Quell surprise! PGP porridge and no ice-cream until after folks.The reason is this: any flaw, exploit or disruption of service is predictable. We are likely to see it coming a mile down the road, just like the attacks on MD5 in academia showed it was flawed long before it was viable for most people to be taking advantage of it.Whereas the motorcycle gangs are using strong, but brittle encryption. It works for as long as RIM wants it to. Because RIM can update everybody's firmware on the Blackberries to include a backdoor if they don't have one, but of course they do. RIM are probably either looking for a pay-off, or else this is a conspiracy between RIM and LE. Extortion or conspiracy, take your pick. Unless you think RIM are going to defend Hells Angels tooth and nail? Nah. Better to sell very expensive services, and then get the drop on them and pull the plug all at once, two payoffs!I cannot understand why people go to such lengths when free alternatives exist that are demonstratively non-fragile.It would be dramatically cheaper and more effective for them to use simple cheap notebook computers with PGP installed, and to use anonymizers to access the internet with some 3G or 4G mobile internet link. The only trouble would be updating everybody on the network with how to use PGP, but that is a one time investment. I suspect the desire to use phones at all costs really has more to do with enforcing hierarchy, keeping the pecking order, than anything else.Finally the fact you can use signed PGP messages means you can authenticate any people on your network.If you want to conduct transnational organized crime, you have to give up some conveniences. Like chatting like a bunch of fucking teenage girls. The only reason why they're using Blackberry phones is that there are so many other flaws in their operational security that this particular one seems largely theoretical to them.