BlackBerry's technology faces security test tomorrow

Keeping its promise, Research In Motion (RIM) officials will give a demonstration to the officials of Home Ministry and security agencies as to how the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) could be intercepted, official sources said.

RIM officials had told the Government last week that it was willing to provide interception of BBM manually from September one and the automatic process of intercepting the BBM would be completed by year end.

The sources said RIM, which has a subscriber base of nearly one million in India, had been asked to give a practical demonstration and not a theoretical one as given by the firm earlier, a senior government official commented.

Only after security agencies are satisfied with the technology of interception, a green signal would be given for continuation of the services, the official said.

The Government had last week set August 31 deadline for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and telecom operators to address its security concerns failing which some of the mobile phone's popular services would be shut down.

In a letter to Department of Telecom Secretary P J Thomas, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai had asked him to convey to the operators and Canada-based RIM that a technical solution to make available lawful interception of BlackBerry Enterprise Services (BES) and BlackBerry Messenger Services (BBM) must be found out by August 31 or its services will be blocked.

This move prompted the BlackBerry maker to take steps to end the logjam by agreeing to provide technical solution on the issue of interception of its services.