RIM to provide BlackBerry 'metadata'

New Delhi, Aug 9: Amid several controversies over BlackBerry security threat in India, RIM had declared that it will provide 'metadata' and relevant information to security agencies, which will enable them in lawful interception.

During a meeting RIM official had explained the work process of BlackBerry to the government official.

"The BlackBerry mobile device sends the encrypted email to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) located with the service provider. The BES decrypts the messages and sends it to email server of the service provider." explained RIM official.

He then proceeded, "the message remains stored in decrypted form at the email server of the service provider. Then the message is pushed to the BlackBerry device in encrypted form."

After discussion, RIM declared, "they can provide the metadata of the message like Internet Protocol address of the BES and PIN and International Mobile Equipment Identity of the BlackBerry mobile," sources said.

Metadata provides information about a certain item's content such as how large the picture is, the colour depth, the image resolution, when the image was created, and other data.

A text document's metadata may contain information about how long the document is, who the author is, when the document was written, etc.

According the sources, RIM's offer, however, failed to excite the security agencies who sought an uninterrupted access to the messaging services on the BlackBerry platform.

"If any BlackBerry service provider is not allowed to be intercepted, we will not allow them to run such services," said RIM officials.

OneIndia News