India expects decision on Blackberry Security
Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian company that makes Blackberry devices, faces an August 31 deadline forgiving Indian government officials means for tracking and reading both Blackberry Enterprise e-mail and messages sent via Blackberry Messenger. India numbers among several Middle Eastern and Asian countries pressuring RIM to provide access to encrypted data in a readable format. The request’s urgency stems from government officials’ concern that that militants will use the secure network to coordinate and carry-out attacks on police, military, and prime commercial targets. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates suspended Blackberry service until RIM provides those governments with similar access to its network transmissions.
A RIM technical team has been in New Delhi for several months, working closely with Indian officials to develop a workable solution. RIM has built a large community of fiercely loyal corporate subscribers who value their service precisely because of its strict security and confidentiality. The Indian government has assured Blackberry users that it will not shutdown the service if discussions continue beyond the deadline, provided discussions are yielding satisfactory progress.
If RIM and Indian security officials fail to reach an agreement, a shutdown would affect more than one million Blackberry users in India and another forty-one million worldwide users who regularly place calls and send electronic mail to India. India is currently the world’s fastest-growing wireless market, so that RIM has powerful economic incentive to reach an agreement. Shutdown would affect Enterprise Mail and Messenger, but subscribers still could use their Blackberries for calls and internet browsing. Officials close to the negotiations have reported that Messenger Service probably will continue after August 31, because RIM has given assurances that the government may have access to that network.
