RIM says its helpless; India not convinced

New Delhi, Aug 4: Ban on Blackberry services in India seems to be inevitable as Research in Motion (RIM) has said that it can not enable the security agencies to monitor the contents of messages and e-mails citing that no third party including the company itself can read encrypted information under any circumstances.

"The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is purposefully designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances," RIM said in a statement.

"Governments have a wide range of resources and methodologies to satisfy national security and law enforcement needs without compromising commercial security requirements," the Canadian firm added, stressing that it does not have a "master key" to unlock the encrypted messages.

With this, a ban on the Blackberry services in the country looms large.

Indian authorities are reportedly not convinced by RIM's contention. Officials stick to their condition that if the contents can not be monitored then the country has no other option but to put an end to Blackberry services.

"We are very clear that any BlackBerry service that cannot be fully intercepted by our agencies must be discontinued. Offering access to data is part of the telecom licensing guidelines and has to be adhered to," a leading business newspaper, The Economic Times, quoted an unnamed security official as saying.

OneIndia News