The Indian government has directed all the telecom operators providing BlackBerry smartphone services to implement the interception solution offered by Research In Motion by December 31. According to the government, the move will help the government security agencies to keep a check on the possible misuse of the encrypted service. The telecom service providers had previously asked the government to extend the deadline to early next year.
“As such, a lot of discussions/deliberations have already taken place [regarding implementation of interception solution for BlackBerry services by TSPs]. At this stage, there is a need to fix up a [time frame] by which all TSPs are required to comply with the requirement of deploying the interception solution in respect of BlackBerry services offered by them… We may ask all the TSPs to comply with the BlackBerry interception requirements by 31.12.2012,” The Hindu quotes DoT security wing’s an internal note.
It’s notable the DoT and Indian agencies haven’t yet given their nod to the RIM solution after final testing.
The government has asked the telecom service providers “BlackBerry interception solution is in the final stages of development and testing by RIM and telecom service providers in conjunction with the Legal Intercepting (LI) vendor. The developed solution should be deployed in coordination with RIM and offered for testing to the respective TERM cells on or before 31.12.2012. Failing to successfully demonstrate a service/services’ [capability to stave off] interception as per norms laid by DoT, the BlackBerry service may be restrained [from being] offered to subscribers from 1.1.2013 through your network,”
The government has also told the TSPs that the “BlackBerry interception solution is in the final stages of development and testing by RIM and telecom service providers in conjunction with the Legal Intercepting (LI) vendor. The developed solution should be deployed in coordination with RIM and offered for testing to the respective TERM cells on or before 31.12.2012. Failing to successfully demonstrate a service/services’ [capability to stave off] interception as per norms laid by DoT, the BlackBerry service may be restrained [from being] offered to subscribers from 1.1.2013 through your network,” the DoT letter to mobile operators said.
According to reports, several telecom operators including the state-run firms BSNL and MTNL, and Reliance Communications (RCom) haven’t given any timeline to complete the implementation work. While Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices and Aircel have asked the government for more time, Vodafone has informed the DoT it was ready for the implementation.
After hectic negotiations with the Indian government, RIM had agreed to provide a solution for interception of encrypted data to Indian security agencies. The company also agreed to help the agencies monitor the data in a readable format. The company has already installed its server in Mumbai to help the telecom service providers to access it. The server installation will help the agencies monitor the data on real-time basis.
Source: The Hindu