BlackBerry allows interim data interception
October 29th, 2010 - 6:59 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (RIM), has temporarily agreed to allow lawful interception by security agencies of its messenger services, sparking hopes the issue would be permanently resolved by January-end, an official said Friday.
“Following continuing discussions of RIM with (the) government of India on the issue of providing access for lawful interception, RIM has set up an interim arrangement for lawful interception of messenger services,” a home ministry spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said RIM has assured that they will provide a final solution for lawful interception of BBM services by Jan 31. “Accordingly, the BBM services will continue to be available.”
The interim solution to the contentious issue follows the government’s decision earlier this month to give till Dec 31 to the Canada-based company for a final solution on the deadlock over providing Indian intelligence agencies access to the private encrypted data sent through its servers.
This was the second time in six weeks that the government had extended the deadline to RIM for access to its popular messenger, communications and business email and communications service, called the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
The government had earlier given Oct 31 as the deadline, threatening to block the services offered by the Indian operators if they did not comply with set norms.
The government fears that online and mobile communications are increasingly being used by terrorists to plan attacks.
According to the licensing conditions, service providers are liable to put in a mechanism allowing security agencies to intercept any conversation of any subscriber whenever required.
There are around one million BlackBerry subscribers in India. The negotiations between the government and RIM were deadlocked on the issue as RIM says it doesn’t have a master key in the system that would allow it or any third party to gain access to encrypted corporate information.
RIM has experienced similar troubles with other countries over the messages sent through its server, with the United Arab Emirates warning to ban the service - a threat that was withdrawn last week.
Saudi Arabia has also threatened action against the phone maker.
- BlackBerry to provide India access to messenger services - Dec 04, 2010
- India extends BlackBerry deadline on data sharing (Lead) - Oct 12, 2010
- RIM offers solution on lawful access to messenger services - Jan 13, 2011
- BlackBerry draws 'a firm line' on access to key services - Aug 13, 2010
- RIM denies allegations of 'installing a network data analysis system' in India - Dec 31, 2010
- We don't have 'master key' to access encrypted data: BlackBerry (Lead) - Aug 27, 2010
- Decision on BlackBerry next week: Indian official - Aug 25, 2010
- Jaipur IT firm to help BlackBerry users stay connected - Oct 10, 2010
- BlackBerry says India can't access encrypted data - Dec 31, 2010
- Blackberry maker lists four criteria for lawful access to security architecture - Aug 13, 2010
- BlackBerry, other services under telecom department scanner - Mar 08, 2011
- Government assured us we would not be singled out: RIM - Feb 18, 2011
- 'Security agencies unable to decrypt intercepted communications' - Aug 17, 2011
- BlackBerry says no 'master key' to access encrypted data - Aug 27, 2010
- Research in Motion and India resolve impasse regarding BlackBerry security concerns - Aug 13, 2010
Tags: business email, communications service, contentious issue, deadlock, encrypted data, enterprise server, final solution, government fears, government of india, home ministry, intelligence agencies, interim arrangement, interim data, interim solution, lawful interception, master key, messenger communications, messenger services, research in motion, security agencies