After the major issue of banning the BlackBerry service in India, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has issued a warning to telecom companies that provide BlackBerry services in India. This decision is the response by the various security agencies in the country to resolve the security issues.
The necessary security measures should be in place by March 31. And if the BlackBerry service providers fail to do so, a stern action will be taken against the provider and DoT says that they will discontinue the BlackBerry services for their customers.
At present, BlackBerry is extremely popular among the country’s corporate circle with more than 4 lakh users subscribing for the service since its launch two years ago. Major telecom companies such as Airtel, Reliance and Vodafone deliver BlackBerry services in the country.
The encryption process developed by Research in Motion (RIM) utilizes servers that are present in several countries, including Russia, United States or Canada. However, there is not even a single server in India. Hence, the Indian security agencies are skeptical as the messages sent through the service cannot be accessed by local security authorities. It may affect the national security since spies and terrorists can make use of this situation and smuggle out security information outside the country.
The Government of India and RIM are in talks regarding the same issue. RIM states that they will respect the regulatory requirements of the Indian government.
BlackBerry, a wireless handheld device, offers push e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services.
