Any solution provided by Research in Motion (RIM), makers of BlackBerry smartphones, must pass through field trials to satisfy India’s security concerns, a senior government source said yesterday.
RIM on Thursday offered to lead an industry forum to look at India’s need to have “lawful access” to its encrypted mail and messenger in an effort to stave off the blocking of the popular service in the world’s fastest growing telecoms market.
Executives of the Canadian firm were due to meet government officials for a second day yesterday in last-ditch negotiations aimed at finding a solution to India’s desire to access the encrypted data that security agencies fear could be misused to launch attacks or create political instability.
RIM faces a Tuesday deadline to give authorities the means to track and read BlackBerry Enterprise e-mail. The government has said it will take a final decision on Monday.
Indian officials say nothing short of a solution which will give them access to e-mail in a readable format will satisfy them.
“We will only accept a solution which will enable us lawful interception of BlackBerry services in the interest of national security,” the source said. “The solution, if they come up with it, will have to go through field trials and satisfy our technical experts.”
RIM said it was willing to lead an industry forum focused on supporting the lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies while preserving the information and security needs of corporations.
A shutdown would affect about 1 million users in India out of a total 41 million BlackBerry users worldwide, allowing them to use the devices only to make calls and browse the Internet.
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