RIM needed time to provide real time access to its corporate e-mails.
BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) may get a one- or two-month breather to find an effective solution to give Indian security agencies access to its corporate e-mail services. India has set an August 31 deadline for RIM to give access to its e-mails, or the services would be shut down in the country.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was likely to ask the government for an extension to resolve the issue, as RIM needed time to provide real time access to its corporate e-mails, a senior official said. About 1 million Indians use BlackBerry.
Meanwhile, RIM and security agencies met today, wherein the Canadian firm gave a solution for interception of its messenger services. A team from Canada is in Delhi to take part in the two-day long discussions. However, a final decision is expected to come out next Monday.
In a statement, RIM said it had offered to create an industry forum focussed on supporting the lawful access needs of enforcement agencies, while preserving the information security needs of corporations and other organisations in India.
The company said the use of strong encryption in wireless technology was not unique to the BlackBerry platform. “Banning one solution such as the BlackBerry solution will be ineffective and counter-productive.”
Banning such strong encryption-based information and communications services would severely limit the effectiveness and productivity of India’s corporations. Strong encryption was used in traditional VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) on both wired and wireless networks to protect corporate, government and law enforcement communications, RIM said.
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DoT had earlier instructed telecom service providers to ensure that a technical solution for interception and monitoring of BlackBerry services in a readable format was made available to law enforcing agencies by August 31.
Earlier, RIM had said e-mails could be intercepted only when it was temporarily stored in an enterprise server in a decrypted form while travelling between two BlackBerry devices. The company does not possess any master key, as it is created by the customers themselves.
RIM uses powerful codes to encrypt e-mail messages as they travel between a BlackBerry device and a computer known as a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) that is designed to secure those e-mails.