BlackBerry Services to Continue in India

The recent developments in RIM-government of India tussle indicate that the BlackBerry Services will continue to run in India. In an official press statement from Press Information Bureau, RIM stated that an interim arrangement of lawful interception of BBM services. So, as of now, a temporary solution has been offered to the Indian government that lets security agencies to lawfully intercept the encrypted BlackBerry services. RIM, in a statement, told Hindustan Times, "No changes to the related stories security architecture for BlackBerry Enterprise Server customers."

For security concerns, the government of India had asked the Canadian handset maker to offer complete lawful access to its encrypted BlackBerry services for monitoring. The Indian government had threatened to order a shut down of BlackBerry Services if RIM did not fulfill the necessary requirements. After discussions that spread over months, RIM has now provided an interim solution for lawful access to BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) services as per the press statement. The final solution for lawful interception of BBM services will be provided by January 31, 2011 and till then, BBM services will continue to be available in the country.

The official statement doesn't mention a word about BlackBerry Corporate Email services. Last month, we reported that the Indian government had rejected RIM's Email decrypting solution. Hence, RIM could be working on the same. Federal Home Ministry spokesperson told Dow Jones Newswires that talks for solution to access encrypted corporate email services are on with RIM.

RIM's advanced encryption in corporate email system makes it secured and hence widely adopted by business class people. Following specific security architecture for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, RIM clarified that the security architecture is the same around the world and the company truly has no ability to provide its customers' encryption keys.

Federal Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said in a statement, "They have to install servers in the country", referring to companies such as Google and Skype who're next on the 'provide lawful access or get banned' list.

BlackBerry Services users have to know that their beloved BlackBerry Messenger will continue to function unharmed and won't face any ban threat; at least not till January 31. By then, we hope RIM offers full solution for lawful interception to the Indian government. We have no clarity on encrypted BlackBerry Corporate Email services as of now.