communication

Attacks to put BlackBerry services under scanner

Anandita Singh Mankotia
Posted: 2008-11-29 03:36:55+05:30 IST
Updated: Nov 29, 2008 at 0336 hrs IST

Font Size

Feedback

Discuss

26/11: 'India to urge Interpol to execute arrest w...Pak investigators find Bangla link to 26/11: Repor...Railways pump in Rs 250-cr to beef up security No curb on freedom of media, says Manmohan

New Delhi: The Mumbai terror attacks are likely to once again put e-mail services of BlackBerry under the government’s scanner. The authorities’ inability to intercept the satellite communication mode, used by the terrorists who attacked Mumbai, is being widely felt by the industry and sections within the government as one of the impediments in the current crisis.

In the past, concerns have been raised by the home ministry about the lack of legal interception being available for the BlackBerry services. In every likelihood the home ministry is going to press on the issue once again.

It was the absence of satellite interception facility in the country due to which the intelligence agencies were unable to foil the terror plots. Similarly BlackBerry services, which have over 1 million subscribers in the country, cannot be lawfully intercepted. Communication on a BlackBerry device can be intercepted on a mobile network since the communication passes through a mobile network in a reformatted manner. However, in cases where such communication is between BlackBerry devices, interception is not possible. BlackBerry services provide access to email through push technology on mobile phones and the service is currently being offered by Bhart Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, BPL, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL). A Canadian firm Research in Motion (RIM) is the technology provider for the BlackBerry services globally.

The issue was first brought to limelight early this year when Tatas were denied permission as the ministry of home affairs (MHA) said that communication between BlackBerry devices couldn’t be intercepted. However, the Canadian firm RIM had appeared reluctant in sharing its technological capabilities and wanted more time to find an alternative route rather than setting up servers in the country. The Canadian firm, however, finally expressed its inability to either provide a solution to Indian security agencies to decode content or shift servers to the sub-continent nation to enable them monitor e-mails and other data. The matter was finally resolved when the department of telecommunications secretary, Siddharth Behura said that the government does not accord permission or deny the same to operators for launching the services.

Behura’s statement then was seen as a complete turnaround from the earlier position. “There is no threat from BlackBerry services. There is no permission needed for starting value added services. We have not given permission to anybody, we have not disallowed anybody,” Behura had then said. Interestingly, the DoT had earlier, on the advice...

Single Page Format

1 - 2 - Next

Discuss this story on expressindia forums

Post Comments

Comments: (Limit 3,000 characters)

Name		Message
Email ID
Subject

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.