BackRIM officials meet DoT on BlackBerry impasse
RIM officials meet DoT on BlackBerry impasse
PremiumIn demand: There are more than 100,000 BlackBerry users in India
New Delhi: Officials of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd, or RIM, have met telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and other senior government officials on Thursday to sort out issues over message encryption keys sought by India, said a person who did not wish to be identified.
Indian security agencies have said messages transmitted through BlackBerry devices posed a risk since they cannot be traced. The department of telecommunications, or DoT, had asked RIM to provide the “master key" to allow the government access to contents transferred over the hand-held devices.
RIM has told customers on 23 May that it cannot hand over the message encryption key to the government as its security structure does not allow any third party or even the company to read the information transferred over its network.
Telecom minister A. Raja had said the Canadian firm had assured the government to come out with a solution in two months.
The talks between the government and RIM have yet to produce a solution. India has demanded RIM set up servers in the country so that security agencies can monitor the traffic. RIM has not agreed to it so far.
Last week, the Canadian high commission asked for a meeting with Behura along with RIM executives to discuss the current imbroglio.
The BlackBerry issue came into the open earlier this year when DoT asked Tata Teleservices Ltd to delay the launch of the service till security mechanisms were in place.
There are more than 100,000 BlackBerry users in India.
Bharti Airtel Ltd, Reliance Communications Ltd, Vodafone Essar Ltd and BPL Mobile Communications Ltd currently offer the service in the country.
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