[ISN] Intelligence Bureau Rejects RIM Proposal

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Mon May 05 2008 - 00:49:34 PDT


http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Intelligence_Bureau_Rejects_RIM_Proposal/551-88997-613.html

Techtree News Staff
May 2, 2008

Here's the next episode of the ongoing Blackberry saga... Word has it 
that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has rejected RIM's (Research in 
Motion) proposal to decompress data sent from Blackberry to 
non-Blackberry phones, reason given being breach of privacy.

RIM claims it had offered to decompress data because Blackberry's 
communication network runs on 256-bit advanced data encryption while 
Indian security agencies are equipped to intercept signals up to 40-bits 
only.

The Intelligence Bureau has rejected the proposal for decompressing data 
as this means leaking of information about the person whose data is 
being intercepted; basically breach of individual privacy.

The Blackberry soap opera, if you will, has been running for too long 
now; the bone of contention being storage of communication between 
Blackberry devices on RIM servers based in Canada -- national security 
agencies have expressed serious concern over not being able to monitor 
this data which might in turn compromise national security.

A week back, the Department of Telecom (DoT) had proposed an interim 
solution wherein data exchanged between Blackberry users would be stored 
on the servers of telecom operators who provide the service in the 
country for a period of one year. In the meantime, DoT had also asked 
RIM to move some of its servers to India so that national security 
agencies could monitor Blackberry traffic.

And amidst all of this, India has assured Canada that the commercial 
interests of RIM, makers of Blackberry, would be kept in mind while 
taking a final decision.


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