Suspension of BlackBerry service may not give solution: Canada tells India

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) Stating that security concerns
are not specific to BlackBerry alone, Canada is understood to
have told India that suspension of services may not yield any
result.
The government has imposed a deadline of August 31 asking
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) to either provide a
solution for monitoring encrypted data or shut shop.
Sources in-the-know of the development that relates to
security concerns that prompted the Ministry of Home Affairs
to take a hard line, said the Canadian government has sent a
communication to India.
However, no confirmation could be obtained from the
Canada High Commission, whose government has said in a
communication that "it is not productive to impose deadlines
in such matters."
There are over 900 corporate houses and companies and
about a million subscribers who are using BlackBerry services
and if the services were suspended, the question would be to
know its impact on these users.
India has security concerns and these are legitimate and
it has all rights to look for solution, but suspension of
services is not the one, feels Canada, sources said.
If services are suspended they (the corporates and
industry) will have to shift to some other platform which may
involve additional cost and also security concerns have been
expressed about other services as well.
Going after RIM will not only not resolve the security
issue, but will create numerous economic and logistical
hardships for many top companies in India. In addition, it
could have a significantly negative impact on the very
important IT and BPO industries.
This is not BlackBerry-specific issue, sources said,
adding the government must address it at the industry-level,
especially when it comes to encryption technology. And issues
are being raised about other ISPs like Google, Skype and
Gmail.
Leading mobile operator Vodafone has already sent an
advisory to its subscribers saying they should be ready for
disruption of some of services after August 31 as per the
direction of the Telecom Ministry.
The government has held several rounds of meetings with
the operators, who are also Internet Service Providers (ISPs),
RIM officials and security agencies, but still no solution has
emerged to everyone's satisfaction.
Canadian government is in touch with the company (RIM) on
the issue and has been working with Indian government
officials to help RIM identify concerns and find solutions,
sources said. MORE PTI PML
RBT


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