Pressure on BlackBerry to provide access to mail service

New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) With the security agencies
already putting to test BlackBerry's messenger service, its
maker Research In Motion (RIM) has been asked by India to
provide technical solution to intercept its enterprise mailing
service which provides a private virtual networking among
group of people and cannot be breached.
The BlackBerry has provided with a technological
facility of intercepting its Messenger service between two
handsets after providing the Personal Index Number (PIN),
official sources said.
The security agencies were ascertaining the
intercepting provisions provided by the Candian smart phone
manufacturer for intercepting BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) for
which a detailed report would be submitted to the Indian
Ministry of Home Affairs later.
The sources said that while some delay had been
noticed in the getting the intercepts, the BlackBerry
manufacturers had assured them of getting a real time
intercepts with very less human interface once the cloud
computing environment was put in place.
The Department of Telecom and the security agencies
are now looking forward for a technical solution to be
provided by the smart phone maker for intercepting the
BlackBerry Enterprise Service under which a private virtual
network is created within the server between a group of
individuals who can exchange emails without getting
intercepted, they said.
The DoT, in consultation with the Home Ministry
officials, are now pressing for providing the access to
BlackBerry Enterprise service (BES).
The DoT had asked other service providers including
Google, Skype and Virtual Private Network (VPN) also to work a
solution of intercepting their services within the stipulated
60 days as provided to the BlackBerry makers.
These service providers have been issued notices
earlier and all of them were asked to comply with the
directive or else they will have to close down their networks
in India, the sources said.
"There will be no discrimination. All networks
operating in India will have to give access to their services
to law enforcement agencies," a senior Home Ministry official
said.
Nokia, which wanted to introduce push-mail service in
India, has already agreed to set up a server in India.

The Union Home Ministry has discussed the security
concerns related to voice and messaging services on the
Internet offered by Google and Skype in India, both of which
have considerable presence in the country.
The data travelling through Google, Skype, VPN and a
few other networks is not accessible by security agencies in
the country. Even the terrorists who carried out the audacious
26/11 attack in Mumbai, used Skype services.
Google is a popular search engine which also offers
email, online chatting and owns social networking website
Orkut.
Luxembourg-based Skype SA provides telephony services
over the Internet on personal computers and mobile phones also
uses proprietary encryption and decryption.
VPN is a network that uses a public telecomnication
infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote
offices or individual users with secure access to their
organisation's network. PTI SKL
MYR