BlackBerry fate to be decided by August 31

What started as an issue about a local server in India to facilitate decryption of BlackBerry mails, smses and messenger chats, after rumours of a server in China compounding national security fears, has escalated with a deadline of August 31 being given to RIM to provide a suitable solution or face a ban.

This development comes after a high-level meeting on Thursday, which included representatives from DoT, security agencies, and state-owned MTNL and BSNL, and was chaired by Union Home Secretary, G K Pillai, wherein DoT was asked to convey to telcos and RIM that BlackBerry Enterprise Services and BlackBerry Messenger Services be made open to legal and security agencies for encryption by August 31, failing which serious action would be considered to block these two services.

Following the ban on BlackBerry services in the UAE, due to RIM's lack of co-operation with UAE's telecom regulations, RIM agreed to set up a local server in Saudi Arabia, after the country, which has 500,000-odd BlackBerry users threatened to ban services as well, due to RIM's non-compliance with its telecom regulatory norms for allowing decryption of customer data by the government for security purposes.

Post August 2, following on the heels of the India and the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi and Bahrain decided to follow suit in threatening to ban BlackBerry services, because RIM's strong encryption features were preventing the government from monitoring messages and emails, and restricting access to forbidden web content. Indonesia and Germany were next in line, with German officials being warned against using Blackberry's for official communication, due to examples of hacking into RIM's so-called 'tight' server were reported by the UAE and Saudi government some years ago, due to frustration with RIM which refused to comply with security norms.

According to government agencies, RIM representatives had also agreed to provide metadata, but since this works only for emails and smses, and not for the BlackBerry messenger service, which is still locked by the user himself, the government is not satisfied. Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications and IT was recently quoted as saying, “We have no issue with the voice service; our reservation is about some of their data services, which they will have to address.When RIM was willing to address the security concerns of other countries, they will have to listen to us too. Our security and intelligence agencies need access to their data services, and it is a very reasonable demand given the global situation. We do not want to eavesdrop on private and business conversations of our citizens or corporates, but we cannot compromise on our security.”

With more than 10 lakh BlackBerry customers in India, any action taken will not only affect the huge customer base, but also RIM's promise of seamless connectivity and security guaranteed to users, as well as landmark services like the E-UNO R10 solution to prevent heart attacks, powered by RIM's BlackBerry. The home ministry is blaming telecom operators offering BlackBerry services for not taking adequate measures to comply with afore-signed government security terms.

After a meeting with telecom operators on August 9, the home ministry is reported to have said, "We will tell the service providers in categorical terms that the government will allow them to offer only those services which could be intercepted by the security agencies. If any service cannot be intercepted, we will not allow them to run such services in India.” According to the licensing agreements, service providers are bound by law to allow security agencies to intercept any conversation or message of any subscriber whenever required, which is why the government is acting tough on them now.

In an ironic twist of fate, Thursday's meeting on the future of BlackBerry services in India was decided in a meeting to which RIM was not even get an invitation. The news also came a day after the government's plan to pause 3G services until certain rules were complied with, which unsurprisingly also relates to security features failure of telcos to comply with IMEI number portability, inability to verify SIM card users, and unavailability of a system in place to tap phones — all of which could greatly impact the scheduled year-end roll-out of 3G services by operators.

berylm@cybermedia.co.in