NEW DELHI: Acceding to India's security concerns, Canada-based Research in Motion - makers of BlackBerry smart phones - has finally set up a 'server' in Mumbai to provide a mechanism for lawful interception of its messenger services. "A team of officials from security agencies has inspected the server. Test runs are going on to check its effectiveness. Required permission for direct linkage for lawful interception of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) services is likely to be issued shortly," an official said.
By setting up the server in India, RIM has had to drop its reluctance to make an exception to its policy of securing communication from any real time interception.
The department of telecommunication has also asked Nokia to do what RIM has done so that its push mails can be legally tracked as and when required by security agencies.
India has been pressing RIM to provide a mechanism to intercept its messenger and enterprise services as security agencies had pointed to the use of such means by terrorist groups. The matter was pursued over the last couple of years before the Canadian company agreed to allow tracking of BBM services while the government has spared BlackBerry Enterprise Services (BES) for now.
Security agencies believe BES communication is not as much a concern as it takes place between employees of companies that subscribe to the service.
DoT has informed the home ministry that there are about 5,000 enterprise servers for BES. RIM representatives had earlier explained that BlackBerry mobile devices send encrypted emails routed to BES located with the service provider. BES decrypts the messages and sends it to the email server of the service provider where it is stored in decrypted form. Then the message is pushed to the BlackBerry device in encrypted form.
Presently, the onus of giving access to security agencies to monitor information on these smart phones lies with service providers. According to the licensing conditions, service providers are liable to put in a mechanism to allow security agencies to intercept any conversation or message of any subscriber whenever required.
