India puts threatened BlackBerry ban on paper

RIM will be talking to the Indian government this week - trying to explain just how difficult it is to intercept encrypted communications, while promising to do just that. The Indian government has already said that if it can't intercept BlackBerry messages by the end of the month it will ask network operators to cut off the …

[Anonymous Coward]

Got a letter from BB recently about how they're not letting our security lapse

In the wake of UAE insisting on the same thing. Seems it's not so important when it's in India, huh RIM? Guess I'll go with something else from now on.

[DanX]

...So....

What terroists need is BES. Its like Spectre is born, (requiring an IT department)

[Disco-Legend-Zeke]

It Seems...

...reasonable for RIM to divulge the customer specific key stream to a legal body in a specific country, provided that:

1. The message originated or was sent to a phone in that locale.

2. The screen displays a disclaimer, something like:

"While you are in [Country], the government may lawfully intercept this message."

Us Americans already take it for granite.

RIP because it's the only icon carved in stone.

[rahul]

Yeah, good luck with THAT...

Explaining IT to the Indian Government? Good luck with that. They still think movie piracy occurs when people smuggle the movie DVDs through the airport / customs.

"Master Key": I can't imagine how they will explain the current, unbreakable cryto systems. Next thing you know, they will demand banks to give them monitoring access to secure banking sites. And when the banks can't comply, will they then shutdown netbanking?

Looks like a return to the dark ages is in the offing...

[JarekG]

They already have that

"Next thing you know, they will demand banks to give them monitoring access to secure banking sites. "

they already have that....remember that next time you call your bank for support.

[L1feless]

Obama

If I am not mistaken Obama has a BB and uses it regularly. Do you mean to tell me he is OK with this? If the president of the USA's communications are not monitored in India...if that ends up being the answer then as a non resident I want my BB left alone too. RIM this is a dangerous road...a very dangerous road.

[Matthew 3]

Specifying the server?

When installing the BES, you're asked to specify the hostname for RIM's servers. But there is no practical reason why you can't use, say, the UK servers instead of the one geographically closest.

With VPNs surely you'd be able to securely and invisibly bypass RIM's local servers if you doubted their security?

Anyway, I'm sure that Obama's BlackBerry doesn't use the same North American RIM servers that Joe Public has to use...

https://www.blackberry.com/SRPAddressLookup/index.do

[MessyHair]

It is difficult. RIM may not have the "masterkey"

This article puts the technical aspects in perspective with no hype or FUD:

http://www.i-programmer.info/news/83-mobliephone/1176-why-rim-why-are-governments-picking-on-the-blackberry.html