Uncertainty remains over BlackBerry email
New Delhi, Aug. 17: Security agencies will need to be satisfied with the technical solution being offered by the makers of BlackBerry, Research in Motion (RIM), for allowing the legal interception of all BlackBerry services, before the government takes a call on allowing certain services being offered by the Canadian smartphone maker, which have come under the scanner of law enforcement agencies.
While the RIM has assured the Union home ministry that it will allow manual access to the popular BlackBerry messenger (BBM) service by September 1, the Centre will be holding parleys over the next one week with technical experts of the department of telecom and central agencies like the Intelligence Bureau and National Technical Research Organisation to analyse whether the technical solution being offered by RIM can be utilised effectively to facilitate legal interception of BBM as well as the BlackBerry Enterprise Services (BES).
RIM has so far not given any assurance over allowing security agencies access to the BES.
Discussions on the technical aspects of the solution being provided by RIM were held on Tuesday and are expected to carry on till August 31, the deadline set by the government to satisfy the security agencies or face a ban on some of its services.
“We are looking at the final outcome. The technical aspects are being discussed right now and a final call will be taken once the security agencies give their feedback. If RIM is unable to give access to BES , this particular service will be banned,” an official said.
Simultaneously, putting pressure on telecom service providers like Airtel, Vodafone, RCom, offering BlackBerry services, , the government has said that it is the responsibility of these operators to ensure that security agencies get access to all services they offer.
The department of telecom has written a letter to all telecom providers, providing blackberry services, stating that the legal intervention capability should be put in place by August 31.
“We have received a letter from DoT, asking us to ensure that legal intervention capability is put in place for BlackBerry services by August 31, 2010. As a Tata Group company, we have always abided by the law of the land and will do so here too,” said the Tata spokesperson on Tuesday.
The home secretary, Mr G.K. Pillai, had recently held two separate meetings with RIM officials as well as DoT and security agencies asking them to provide a technical solution to make available lawful interception of all blackberry services by the deadline.
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