Install server or close messenger, mail svc:Govt to BlackBerry

New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) Toughening its stand, Indian
Government has conveyed to the BlackBerry makers to install
its server in the country for tracking its messenger and
enterprise mail service as the offer made by it to provide
data from its Canada-based server could be detrimental to
national security.
Officials of BlackBerry maker RIM (Research In Motion)
had offered to provide information on a deferred basis after
it faced the threat of a shutdown of the core features by
August 31 if security agencies cannot gain access to heavily
encrypted corporate email sent on a Blackberry handset.
The RIM had provided an option to the security agencies
and officials of the Home Ministry that they could hand over
the details of BlackBerry phones needed to be monitored and
the firm in turn will decrypt the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)
and BlackBerry Enterprise mail Service (BES) of the smart
phones in question, sources in the Telecom Ministry said.
The RIM officials were ready to provide the information
initially manually and later through a non-human interface
using the "cloud computing environment" method under which a
separate wall created in the server and code and pass-code is
handed over to the overall coordinator, in this case India,
the sources said.
However, the proposal was rejected prima facie as
security agencies claimed that handing over telephone numbers
for monitoring was fraught with the danger of exposing the
source to an outside company and thus can be detrimental to
country's security, the sources said.
Even the automated system of extracting information from
Canada-based server was not free of danger because the
information could be hacked midway, the sources said.
The sources said that RIM officials were conveyed in no
uncertain terms that they should deploy their interception
server in India with the Indian Service Provider having a
definitive tracking system.
Taking serious exception to BlackBerry's inability to
provide a solution to BES, the Home Ministry again wrote to
the Telecom Ministry that if the RIM officials in
collaboration with the service providers do not come up with a
solution to BES, the service should be stopped immediately.
The BES is a technology of the BlackBerry where by a
close user group within a few individuals is created and no
mails sent from their smart phones to each other can be
intercepted, the sources said.

Earlier the BlackBerry, which has over one million
connections in India, had come up with a proposal of under
which a mobile number that needed to be monitored would to be
handed over to the RIM who in turn will provide the
information within a maximum of 10 days.
However, the security agencies insisted on a real time
information rather than a deferred one in the interest of
national security.
The BlackBerry makers are racing against time to meet the
August 31 deadline set by the Government earlier this month to
provide a solution for intercepting the BBM and BES or see the
prospect of the mobile phone's popular services being
shut down in the country.
The Government is firm that any proposal of RIM would be
accepted only after security agencies are satisfied with the
technology of interception. PTI SKL
RBT