RIM says India tool only for consumer services access

Dec 31, 2010 7:59 AM
Filed under Security

Claims corporate data cannot be intercepted.

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion claims the network data analysis system (NDAS) developed to appease foreign governments was a tool to gain lawful access only to its consumer services including BlackBerry Messenger, and does not enable access to highly secure corporate emails on its devices.

RIM, in a statement, reiterated that there would be no change to its security model for corporate emails, clarifying after the Economic Times newspaper earlier reported RIM had offered to install the tool at its premises in India to help tap data.

RIM has said it is cooperating with the Indian government and was enabling mobile carriers to lawfully access data on BlackBerry Messenger.

India had threatened to shut off BlackBerry Messenger and corporate email services unless it gains access to them, in a campaign driven by fears that unmonitored communication puts the country's security at risk.

RIM averted a ban earlier this year, and the Indian government said in late October that RIM had set up an interim arrangement for lawful interception of BlackBerry Messenger services and assured a final solution by the end of January 2011.

Indian government officials have said discussions are still on with the company on corporate email access. But no easy fix is seen as BlackBerry's reputation is built on its system security and a compromise under pressure from governments could damage the device's popularity with business professionals and politicians.

RIM said it was "technologically infeasible" to enable access to corporate email through an NDAS.

The company has earlier said it is confident that India's security concerns could be resolved to their mutual satisfaction and has consistent global standards for lawful access, which do not include special deals for specific countries.

RIM uses powerful codes to scramble, or encrypt, email messages as they travel between a BlackBerry device and a computer known as a BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

The company has said it does not have a master key to decode these emails and only the sponsoring business or organisation has the technical capability to grant access to encrypted enterprise email.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan).

RIM says India tool only for consumer services access

1 comment in this discussion

"This whole issue is wrong on so many levels. In my opinion RIM will cough up every bit of data a government asks for. They have no choice in the matter if they want to do business in the market ..."

By cduston

Tags

rim, blackberry, india, interception, ndas, network data analysis system

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Comments: 1

cduston

Dec 31, 2010 9:18 AM

This whole issue is wrong on so many levels.

In my opinion RIM will cough up every bit of data a government asks for. They have no choice in the matter if they want to do business in the market place controlled by that government. Unless you see RIM shut down it's business in India and other countries who are demanding data access then be assured they caved.

Therefore these media releases are simply damage control to cover themselves in front of their customers. They went to market claiming secure data, but if at any time that is proven to be a lie that's what we would call a fraudulent claim.

But the true evil here is the insatiable need for governments to snoop everything about you. Your emails, your phone calls, your credit card data. Everything they can get their hands on.

The easiest way to attack western civilization today is to mail a bomb to someone. It doesn't have to go off. A knee jerk reaction from government will cause more snooping of mail. Stupid government seem to think unless they are seen to be taking action they will be voted out of office as weak on security.

But, of course, snooping everything doesn't create security. It simply destroys freedom, a large piece of the foundation of western civilization.

The East German Stasi would be proud.

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