BlackBerry, Skype, Gmail and now 3G come under the scanner of Indian Government

[Karthik R 246]

KOLKATA/DELHI: The telecom department has just told the home ministry that Aditya Birla Group-promoted Idea Cellular’s monitoring solutions for the super-secure BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS) do not make the cut.

Idea Cellular, incidentally, is the only mobile phone company to have demonstrated interception solutions for BIS.

In an internal communique to the home ministry, the Department of Telecom (DoT) said that Idea’s encryption solution is ‘user-unfriendly’ as it fails to open any emails with .jpg attachments, coupled with the fact that all intercepted content is loaded with junk data.

“The email and web browsing interception mechanism demonstrated by Idea Cellular is not user-friendly as the intercepted content is embedded in undesirable junk data, making it difficult to locate the actual useful content in the intercepted email.

The system also could not open any emails with .jpg attachments. The company should be asked to provide the tools to open all email attachments, including those in .jpg formats,” notes a telecom department communique to the home ministry, which was reviewed by ET.

The telecom department also wants the home ministry to give companies like Nokia and Cisco the same treatment as BlackBerry by nudging them to demonstrate encryption solutions for their range of enterprise services offered in India.

“The home ministry should assess Nokia and Cisco’s compliance levels for their enterprise services, in so far as providing interception solutions in step with the requirements of the law enforcement agencies,” said a telecom department official with direct knowledge of the matter.

The latest developments come as Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of the BlackBerry smartphone , edges closer to the end-January 2011 deadline of sharing the encryption keys and codes of its secure email and BlackBerry Messenger services with India’s security establishments.

In a customer update, aimed at allaying concerns of an impending ban, RIM asserts that it “continues to be as co-operative as possible with the government in the spirit of supporting legal and national security requirements.”

Source : Economic Times

[kesav 127]

Dear Admins,

Kindly merge this topic with

[Honest 836]

<< Topic Merged >>

[kesav 127]

RIM Still Refuses to Give in to Indian Demands

Government is engaged with Research in Motion (RIM), the provider of Blackberry services, to find out a solution for the interception and monitoring of messenger chat and enterprise email using Blackberry phone.

Voice, SMS and individual email communication can be intercepted and monitored by Security Agencies in readable format. However, Security Agencies are not able to intercept & monitor the communication made through Blackberry Messenger Service and Blackberry Enterprise Service in readable format.

As per Research in Motion (RIM), provider of Blackberry services, communication in case of enterprise email is encrypted from device to device and key is dynamically created by Blackberry device. There is one to one correspondence between the key at device and the key at enterprise email server, placed at the premises of enterprise customer. They have also stated that they cannot create any third party access in readable format because they do not have the key, which is dynamically generated.

source :: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=68075

Yet another disappointing news on the subject.

Let us hope RIM will provide meaningful solution before deadline ends to avoid permanent closure of its services in India.

Hope RIM will move out of its cheating attitude and solve the issue amicably.

[rajanmehta 4,056]

I would like to write something from the heart. Please bear with me if this looks uncomfortable.

A real life example:

During the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008, majority of the attackers were carrying simple GSM phones with Sims that were obtained in India by giving fake identity documents etc. Immediately after the attacks started, Indian Security Agencies (Particularly RAW) was able to track down all this numbers and they were recording all the communications going on between the terrorists and their handlers. The handlers were instructing terrorists at different locations like Taj, Oberoi and Chhabad House minute by minute what to do with the help of the Live Coverage going on on all TV Channels. This continued till the entire operation was over and resulted in such a great loss of life and prolonging of the operation for nearly 2 and half days. The intelligence agencies were just recording the conversations which came out later in the media in all its gory details.

Imagine if they would have instructed Indian Mobile Operators to switch off this numbers immediately on the 1st day itself instead of just recording. so much of precious human lives could have been saved. Alas this needs quick thinking and appropriate response which is sadly lacking in India. They had all the technology at their hand. Still did nothing and no out of the box thinking.

Moral: With all the interception at your hand, it requires a solid pro active intelligence, monitoring and situation handling set up to effectively thwart threats to security which is still not operational in India and don't see it happening in the near future irrespective whether Blackberry grants access or not.

Blackberry granting access means a lot to tickle our Patriotic feelings but on the ground it means big ZERO untill we have a very effective intelligence and situation handling apparatus in place which is not there right now and it just seems will not be there for years to come. Why i say so? If india would have valued the life of its citizens (More than 2,00,000 killed in last 20 years in terrorist, insurgency), it would be alive and kicking now. See America's example after 9/11 in revamping entire security structure with Homeland Security and preventing any significant attack after 9/11.

We are not even able to punish the lone terrorist Ajmal Kasab even till now and spending Crores in keeping him safe!

Unless and untill there is a total revamp of Intelligence structure, Effective Laws to deal with Terrorism, Speedy Justice, all this Blackberry interception things are symbolic gestures to keep us all deeply patriotic Indians in good humour. Symbolic only not Real!!

And by the way why this Drama of discussing with Blackberry for such a long time to get access to the messanger system. If the authorities think earnestly that it is vital for India's security interests, then just ask them to grant access and if they are not giving, ban them. But no, this kind of thing will not happen here. Just this Nautanki will go on for some time. And when things will cool down and off the radar of media and general public, nothing substantial will happen.

Edited December 3, 2010 by rajanmehta

[kesav 127]

It is very difficult to accept that our agencies just recorded conversations without disconnecting it....May be just a bit of exaggeration.....

The points regarding the revamping of our security apparatus and intelligence gathering is a valid one. Everyone here in the forum is aware and vouch for it.

Coming back to this topic, Let us park all the terms like patriotism, terrorism, intelligence, security etc., for a moment.

What we want here is very simple. There is requirement of lawful interception and every telecom entity operating in India must abide by it.

Technology can't be allowed to be used as an excuse. On contrary, technology should be used to abide with law.

No excuses.... No justifications.....No procrastinations.....

All the faults which had been highlighted can be overcome easily if you develop a nation of law abiding citizens(inc. corporates).

Edited December 3, 2010 by kesav

[csmart 472]

i dont why our govt. so soft towards BB... they installed servers in middle east and china.. but in india, they dont want to do... they know that they can play with Indian babus and mantris as long as they want.

its high time that gov.t shows some balls...

[raccoon 53]

all this Blackberry interception things are symbolic gestures to keep us all deeply patriotic Indians in good humour. Symbolic only not Real!!

+100 to that. But we "deeply patriotic" Indians are simple minded folks and quickly swallow such good humor.  

 There is requirement of lawful interception and every telecom entity operating in India must abide by it.

How do you define "lawful" interception? What they want is full real time 24/7 snooping of private communication. IIRC, Blackberry has been willing to supply communication between specific suspect communication, but not in real time. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

And let us remember, that all such intercepted communication can be leaked out, the way the Tata/Radia/Burkha tapes have.

[kesav 127]

Nokia installs server in India; BlackBerry may face pressure

NEW DELHI: Nokia on Thursday announced installation of a server in India to enable security agencies lawfully intercept its email and messenger services, a move which may force BlackBerry to follow suite.

Nokia India Vice President and MD D Shivakumar called on Home Secretary G K Pillai on Thursday and handed over the letter, saying the company has conformed with all requirements suggested by the law enforcement agencies.

The company, however, assured its customers that their privacy would be protected, even while fulfilling public responsibility and legal obligations.

"As a responsible corporate citizen, we follow all local laws and regulations that are required by the government authorities," it added.

Installing a server to intercept data sent and received through smart-phones was a key demand of security agencies, which feared that this service could be used terror elements.

"We made a commitment to install host servers in India by end of the year. It gives me immense pleasure to inform you that it has been installed. We have completed the software installation and internal testing and the messaging service is now live on our India based servers," Shivakumar said in the letter.

This comes amid concerns raised by the government over flow of data on smart phones, especially BlackBerry which offers services like BlackBerry-to-BlackBerry messaging and enterprise mail on the device.

Canada-based Research-in-Motion , makers of BlackBerry, had said it was an industry issue and should be dealt with all the players including Nokia and other service providers who offer Virtual Private Network (VPN) services.

RIM has been saying that the security architecture was the same around the world and RIM truly had no ability to provide the agencies its customers' encryption keys.

Government has given Blackberry time till January 2011 to create lawful interception facilities with all operators offering the service.

With Nokia installing the servers in India, "the tool provides real time intercept of content. It also facilitates location of the mobile device generating emails," Shivakumar's letter to Pillai said.

According to the company, Nokia Messaging is a push mail service that aggregates current email accounts of the subscribers on their mobile phones. The service merely collates information available through the internet and directs it to the respective mobile devices.

Nokia servers include authentication server, email enterprise server, and configuration database servers. "This ensures that the authentication happens within India and the database will reside within India," Shivakumar said.

source :: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/Nokia-installs-server-in-India-BlackBerry-may-face-pressure/articleshow/7029663.cms

This is another nail in the coffin of blackberry in India.

What India demands is just what it has already done across more powerful nations(USA,Canada,China,Russia etc.,)

I feel it's time for India to stop behaving like soft nation and be assertive...

[raccoon 53]

One more reason to dump Nokia and use BB.  

That is, assuming that their services are not barred or they eventually give in. 

[kesav 127]

How do you define "lawful" interception? What they want is full real time 24/7 snooping of private communication. IIRC, Blackberry has been willing to supply communication between specific suspect communication, but not in real time. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

And let us remember, that all such intercepted communication can be leaked out, the way the Tata/Radia/Burkha tapes have.

There are 2 levels of recording normally required by any law in the world.

(1) Generic Recording -- All the records(read as voice&data) of all subscribers of each service provider has to be archived for the last xx hours.I don't know exactly what is the value of xx in Indian context. xx will differ for different services like voice, data & SMS. RIM doesn't have any problem in this aspect. This is basically needed for postmortem work by intelligent agencies.

(2) Specific Recording -- This is hard real-time 24x7 access on specific subscriber who has been suspected by intelligent agencies and has to be carried out only on specific request from intelligent agency to service provider. This is the case of Nira Radia where they've accessed her for 120 days or so continuously. RIM has a problem here due to their servers in Canada and strong encryption.

In the emerging news, The Nira's tapes have been leaked out by the service provider of Nira Radia rather than by Govt.

Let us be very very clear, our service providers can illegally tap our phones at anytime for as long as they like without anybody's permission. In case of Blackberry, the point of such possibility shifts from service provider to RIM due to encryption.

What we've been fighting here just to allow lawful access to our intelligent agents on the voice&data which is very well illegally accessible by private corporates in the telecom flow chain.

[raccoon 53]

Regarding your 2 points above :

1) Is this kind of generic recording actually done in India? As in are all voice calls of all subscribers recorded for x hours/days?

2) I am not necessary against the kind of recording done against Mrs. Radia. That being, that for a particular suspicious subscriber, specific legal permission is sought for phone tapping. But what the govt. wants with RIM is real time access to any/all random subscribers without any permission from a court, etc. This should be absolutely unacceptable to any and every citizen who has a semblance of intelligence to even imagine the ramifications. I mean what next? How about CCTVs inside our houses? I'm sure there will be people who will argue that this for national security, and will help make India safer, blah, blah... sigh! I am sure the Govt. will be more than willing to put all of us under surveillance... and Huxley's Brave New World may well come to pass very soon.

As far as I understand and remember, RIM has always been willing to share records of a specific subscriber with Indian Intelligence Agencies.... only not in real time.

In case of Blackberry, the point of such possibility shifts from service provider to RIM due to encryption.

Assuming that RIM can actually do this (I won't be surprised if they can) ie. crack their own encryption, it would still just be one variable and probability for a leak will be much, much lower. If intelligence agencies are allowed to snoop on each and every subscriber at whim, the possibility of leak grows manifold as the variables have increased! What is more, the "value" of the leaked data will be far greater in local hands, than a Canadian company, much of whose business depends on its reputation for keeping subscriber data confidential.

Edited December 10, 2010 by raccoon

[rajanmehta 4,056]

Outlook Magazine ran a Cover Story few months back on illegal interception by Govt. Agencies. "A Fox On A Fishing Expedition" http://www.outlookin...cle.aspx?265192

Worth Reading and Quite Disturbing.

[kesav 127]

1) Is this kind of generic recording actually done in India? As in are all voice calls of all subscribers recorded for x hours/days?

It should be there but I don't the value of "x"

2) I am not necessary against the kind of recording done against Mrs. Radia. That being, that for a particular suspicious subscriber, specific legal permission is sought for phone tapping. But what the govt. wants with RIM is real time access to any/all random subscribers without any permission from a court, etc.

Then it's good. Just a bit of misunderstanding from your end so far.

Govt. wants hard real-time access to any such subscriber which it deems fit for surveillance. Permission can be granted from certain level in the intelligence/Law enforcement agencies but certainly cannot wait for courts.

As far as I understand and remember, RIM has always been willing to share records of a specific subscriber with Indian Intelligence Agencies.... only not in real time.

Records doesn't serve the purpose.It's postmortem and it just similar to the case 1 and just not useful.

In case of Blackberry, the point of such possibility shifts from service provider to RIM due to encryption.

Assuming that RIM can actually do this (I won't be surprised if they can) ie. crack their own encryption, it would still just be one variable and probability for a leak will be much, much lower. If intelligence agencies are allowed to snoop on each and every subscriber at whim, the possibility of leak grows manifold as the variables have increased! What is more, the "value" of the leaked data will be far greater in local hands, than a Canadian company, much of whose business depends on its reputation for keeping subscriber data confidential.

I plead to disagree on this point completely. Intelligence works are not only directed against terrorists but also against nations.

Certainly no sensible govt. can trust a company working in Canada to preserve the pro-intelligent data emanated from western world to be handed over to Government of India in an unmodified way.

RIM will always work as an agent of Canada.

Edited December 10, 2010 by kesav

[raccoon 53]

 Rather than me saying anything more, Rajan's link to the very disturbing article in Outlook is all that is needed to jolt all those who are blindly supporting govt's acts of playing big brother. If this does not jolt them, I don't think anything will, and further arguments on my part are utterly pointless. 

[rajanmehta 4,056]

Blackberry maker RIM offers data tapping at its premises in India

NEW DELHI: Blackberry maker Research in Motion , which had been slapped with a January 31 deadline to provide a 'final solution' for lawful interception of services offered on its handsets , has offered to install a network data analysis system at its premises in India, to end the three-year standoff between the Canadian company and security agencies here.

The home ministry has suggested that the Canadian company set up this NDAS infrastructure that has the capabilities to automatically decode all data flowing on RIM's network, and also ensure that intercepted and decoded information will not travel outside the country, at the premises of mobile phone companies.

In an internal note reviewed by ET, the home ministry said its opposition towards RIM setting up the network data analysis system at its own premises here stemmed from a security perspective.

Earlier this month, RIM had offered a cloud-based solution to India's home ministry , but the latter then sought changes after it was found that intercepted and decoded data was flowing via the internet from the Canadian company's servers in Europe to that of mobile networks here.

"In the final solution proposed by RIM, the decoding will be automatic. Intercepted and decoded data will not travel out of India . RIM has proposed to install NDAS in India. In the final solution, intercepted and decoded data will travel between service providers and RIM India ," adds the home ministry note issued by its deputy director Arvind Kumar.

This marks a significant climbdown for the Canadian company, which had previously resisted pressure from India's home ministry , to install servers here, while also maintaining that it did not have any master key to intercept any BlackBerry communication.

The stakes are big for the Canadian smartphone maker, especially since India is one of its fastest growing markets. Super secure corporate email has been RIM's unique selling point, which has made the BlackBerry service an instant hit with high-flier executives. Today, India has over a million BlackBerry users although less than 4 lakh subscribe to its email and messenger service.

In October, the government ordered RIM to come up with a solution by January 2011-end that would give the country's intelligence agencies complete access to all services offered on its handsets .

It had earlier asked RIM to hand over the encryption keys and codes of its corporate mail and messaging services to the Indian security establishment by October 31. The extension to January-end 2011 was given since RIM had sought a timeframe of 23 weeks in August to provide a solution for lawful access 'that would not involve overseas data path'.

Source:Economic Times

[ami1 237]

Outlook Magazine ran a Cover Story few months back on illegal interception by Govt. Agencies. "A Fox On A Fishing Expedition" http://www.outlookin...cle.aspx?265192

Worth Reading and Quite Disturbing.

Rather than me saying anything more, Rajan's link to the very disturbing article in Outlook is all that is needed to jolt all those who are blindly supporting govt's acts of playing big brother. If this does not jolt them, I don't think anything will, and further arguments on my part are utterly pointless.

Very disturbing. I am amazed how some people feel good about Govt trampling over citizen's constitutional rights.

None of this will ever help the govt eradicate the bad guys - because almost all of them operate by paying off some govt officials. So buying a SIM means greasing some palms to get ration card driving license etc. Nothing more. Tapping phones is only to blackmail citizens or silence those asking uncomfortable questions. Maybe once in a while you can catch a few petty criminals planning something, but no terrorist who has come prepared to die and is armed to the teeth is going to be affected by your listening in to him - probably they'll just stop using phones.

If all this effort was made in actual, honest policing & hard work there would be a big impact. without that, its just security theater - but until citizens at least realize that something bad is happening we have a very bad future.

Time to limit all confidential talk to private meetings - till government issues diktat that all citizens should carry 24hour voice recorders and submit the recordings to nearest PS everyday.

[Honest 836]

Test BlackBerry’s interception system: Home ministry to DoT

The Economic Times l 31 December l New Delhi

NEW DELHI: India’s interior ministry has asked the telecoms department to validate BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion’s claims that it had installed a ‘cloud computing-based system’ to legally intercept messenger services on its handsets.

Earlier this month Canada’s RIM had told the home ministry that it had complied with the Indian government’s mandate to provide interception tools for BlackBerry messenger chats

“We are happy to confirm that as per the compliance schedule agreed by both Research in Motion and the Ministry Of Home Affairs, RIM infrastructure is ready to receive and process via the cloud computing-based system, lawfully intercepted BlackBerry messenger data from India service providers,” the Canadian company’s vice-president of industry, government and university relations Robert E Crow had said in a communication to the home ministry.

In a communication to the telecoms department, home ministry’s joint secretary Dharmendra Sharma said that RIM had agreed to provide a final solution to its messenger chat services by January 31, 2001, while adding that ‘according to the Canadian company, the cloud-based computing system was the final solution it was putting in place by January-end’ for this facility.

On Thursday, ET had reported that RIM had offered to install a network data analysis system at its premises in India, to end the three-year standoff between the Canadian company and security agencies here that have been demanding access to BlackBerry communications. But RIM on Thursday in a statement said that it had not provided any access to its highly-secure corporate emails.

[Honest 836]

RIM Refutes Indian BlackBerry Data Tapping Reports

States the ET report is false and setting up NDAS is technologically infeasible

Canadian handset maker Research in Motion has denied accepting any offer from the Indian Dept. of Home Ministry to install network data analysis systems in its premises. Indian news daily Economic Times reported on December 30 that RIM agreed to install Network Data Analysis Systems infrastructure at its Indian premises for encrypted BlackBerry Services data tapping. RIM told Wall Street Journal in an email statement, "This (the media report) is both false and technologically infeasible."

Time and again RIM has been pleading to the Govt. of India that installing NDAS Infrastructure in its Indian premises is not possible or feasible. However, as per ET's report RIM had agreed to the Indian governments demands to provide the required infrastructure for tapping the encrypted data. Govt. of India had also given a deadline of January 31, 2011 for RIM to provide a solution for lawful interception of encrypted BlackBerry data services.

RIM clarified in the emailed statement that the reported January 31 deadline is incorrect and that the report also contradicts comments from the government of India.

So the issue is back to square one with RIM stating that installation of NDAS infrastructure is technologically not feasible, while the Indian Govt. seeks a working solution to intercept and monitor the encrypted BlackBerry data. Though there is talk of BlackBerry Services being banned after January 31, 2011, in case RIM doesn't submit a solution, the company clearly refutes the deadline.

Courtesy : Techtree

[rajanmehta 4,056]

BlackBerry seeks up to 2-yrs to offer interception solution

NEW DELHI: Blackberry has asked for 18-24 months to provide a complete solution for interception of its Enterprise Mail, but with a condition that its services would not be banned, a guarantee that the government declined to give.

"Research in Motion (RIM), maker of BlackBerry, can provide the infrastructure in India for BlackBerry Enterprise Servers (BES) services in a time frame of 18-24 months provided it is confirmed that the services will not be banned in India during the period," the Canada-based company said at a meeting with the Department of Telecom (DoT).

The company was earlier given time till January 31, 2011, to provide solution for Lawful Interception of contents sent or received on the device.

The DoT has, however, refrained from giving any guarantee to RIM officials that their services would not be banned in case they fail to provide solution.

The government said creating RIM infrastructure for BES services in India will not only enhance the possibility of accepting such service from security point of view but that may also be of the commercial interest of the company.

Therefore, RIM should seriously consider to create infrastructure for BES in India and condense the implementation time to a much shorter time frame to create such an infrastructure, the DoT officials said during the meeting.

The company informed the government that interception and monitoring in readable format is possible at the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) located at the enterprise, which is availing enterprise e-mail services through the phone platform.

The company added that RIM infrastructure at Canada and England is a mere router and it does not store content, its only route the content to the desired destination.

To the question of installing the server for BES services in India, RIM said, "The company should not be singled out and if all companies offering such services are asked to provide servers in India then RIM will follow the instruction issued by the government."

Meanwhile, the Canadian firm had also offered lawful interception in its security architecture through cloud computing its BlackBerry to BlackBerry Message (BBM) services from Indian operators.

Cloud computing is Internet-based service, whereby shared servers provide software and data to computers and other devices on demand.

RIM infrastructure is ready to receive and process through the cloud computing-based system, lawfully intercepted BlackBerry Messenger data from Indian service providers, the Canada-based firm had said.

Source:Economic Times

[Honest 836]

RIM Gives Messenger Solution to Indian Govt

Lawful access doesn't extend to corporate email but only to messaging services and Internet services

Canadian mobile maker Research in Motion has submitted a new solution to the Indian government for interception and monitoring of BlackBerry Messenger as per Reuters reports. The January 31 deadline given to BlackBerry is closing in fast and it seems RIM is busy putting things in order to avoid getting its services banned in India.

The government of India had asked RIM to offer a solution that will let Indian security agencies intercept and monitor encrypted BlackBerry Services. Last month RIM rubbished reports of setting up a Network Data Analysis Systems infrastructure at its premises in India.

RIM gave a solution to Indian mobile service providers that will allow lawful access to BlackBerry Messenger and BlackBerry Internet services. The company also stated that the solution ideally meets the requirements of the Indian government.

Once again RIM stated its incapability to provide access to highly secure corporate emails since they are encrypted while it travels from the user's device to the BlackBerry Enterprise server. RIM reiterated that it does not possess any master key for decoding these heavily encrypted emails.

RIMM said, We also wish to underscore, once again, that this enablement of lawful access does not extend to BlackBerry Enterprise Server [corporate email], which is essentially an enterprise VPN solution.

However, the Indian government also seeks the lawful interception solution for the company's encrypted email services.

Courtesy : Techtree

[Honest 836]

Leaks force RIM to break talks with govt

20th January l The Economic Times l New Delhi

Canada-based Research in Motion , the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, has temporarily suspended its dialogue with the government on security issues saying leakage of sensitive discussions between the company and the Indian authorities had undermined the confidence needed for such talks.

Endorsing RIM’s stance, Canada has complained to Home Secretary GK Pillai that confidential information submitted by the smartphone company was being leaked to the media, and a top executive from the cellphone company would visit New Delhi and assess the situation (on the leaks) before talks resume.

Canadian High Commissioner Stewart Beck, in his communication to Pillai, expressed ‘complete disbelief’ that confidential minutes of a meeting between RIM and officials of the home and telecomsministries wer the source for ‘damaging articles’ in the Indian media recently. He also said media leaks had “dogged the sensitive discussions” between RIM and the Indian government on security-related issues since early 2008.

The communication said these ‘leaks’, in addition to being ‘unhelpful’, could not “compare to the unprecedented damage caused by leaking of confidential documents”, and its impact was “undermining the confidence necessary for sensitive negotiations”.

ET had reported on January 6 that RIM had sought an additional 18-24 months, up to January-end, 2013, to address concerns of security agencies here.

Indian security agencies have been demanding encryption keys to BlackBerry’scorporate email services. Even as RIM sought additional time, it has asked the Indian government not to ban its services in the interim period. The report was based on the minutes of the December 29 meeting between RIM and home and telecom ministry officials. RIM has been involved in a three-year battle with Indian security agencies which have been demanding access to BlackBerry communications, citing national security threats. Last week, RIM said it has given Indian security agencies a key to enable access to its eponymous messenger and public email, but reiterated its inability to provide access to its corporate email services.

[Karthik R 246]

Research In Motion (RIM) is now facing the whip for erroneous depiction of Jammu and Kashmir in the world map on its BlackBerry maps feature. RIM is trying to wash it off its hands by claiming the map is outsourced from a vendor.

[kshah 452]

Even gvoogle map has same problem.

[kesav 127]

All that means BIS & BIM will be allowed but BES will blocked from 1st Feb 2011.

Let us pray & hope that our Govt. has enough muscles to get what it wants from these adamant thugs.

Why on earth Govt. is so worried about blocking a service like BES which is used by minutest of minute population of India?

Will corporate India not survive without BES?

Has Govt. ever shown such room of flexibility and involved in such long negotiation before blocking certain essential services like prepaid service in J&K ???

:confuse: :confuse: