Tomorrow was the deadline for RIM to offer a way for the the India government to lawfully intercept BlackBerry communications, which, if not satisfied, would have resulted in a ban of services. After reviewing everything and meeting with RIM, the Department of Telecommunications will test a proposed monitoring solution for 60 days which should allow the government to access both consumer BlackBerry Messenger data, as well as enterprise e-mail. We had heard a solution was suggested that involved forwarding e-mails to service providers that had landed on mail servers after everything was decrypted. From there, authorities could access information if needed.
Saudi Arabia put a much tighter timeline on RIM, but seemed to get what they wanted in terms of lawful interception, while things are still a work-in-progress in the United Arab Emirates, though progress is good. The need for governments to access BlackBerry transmissions has spurred RIM to create an international forum, where governments can relay their security needs to the telecommunications industry at large, and handset manufacturers can make their case for the privacy of enterprise data. The goal here is to get everyone involved, since RIM has made it clear that they want BlackBerry to be held at the same standard as other smartphones, which equally make use of similar encryption methods.
Indians should be pretty happy that BlackBerry service is going to continue, at least for the next two months – howzabout a little dance number to celebrate?
[via Bloomberg]