BlackBerry to give ‘lawful access’
Security issue
The maker of Blackberry mobile phones, Research In Motion (RIM), got a reprieve from proscription with the company agreeing to provide lawful access of its services to Indian security agencies.
In a crucial meeting held between officials of the Home Ministry and the Department of Telecom (DoT) and representatives of RIM here, the company has also agreed to set up its server in India as insisted by the government.
The company also promised that all its services to Indian customers will be provided through the server installed in India. Now, the BlackBerry services are being routed through a server based in Canada. The company said it would provide complete access of its services to Indian law enforcing agencies and these proposals would be operationalised immediately.
The Home Ministry said it would study the company’s offer and seek the report from DoT within 60 days and then review the situation. This means BlackBerry services will continue in India without any hitch for at least two more months. “While reviewing the sitution after 60 days, if security agencies are satisfied with the access provided by the company, they will allow the company to continue its services”, sources said. The Indian government, worried that militants could use BlackBerry’s heavily encrypted services to plan attacks, had imposed a deadline of August 31, asking RIM to either provide a solution for monitoring encrypted data or shut shop.
There are over 900 corporate houses and companies and about a million subscribers who use BlackBerry services in India. RIM had earlier said that it had no “master key” to unlock encryption codes of clients which are set at the user level and argued that the issue was an industry-wide concern.
Govt to issue notice to Google
The government will issue notices to search engine Google, internet phone call provider Skype, service provider Virtual Private Network and few others to make available their services to law enforcement agencies, reports PTI from New Delhi.
