March 31 deadline for BlackBerry data encryption

The government has set a deadline of March 31 for telecom operators to provide an interception solution for BlackBerry enterprise services.

The home ministry has directed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to ask service providers for a solution for security agencies to access the services, by the end of this month, according to people privy to the development. Research in Motion (RIM) has maintained that the company cannot provide access to its enterprise services, since it does not hold any key to these.

RIM had already given a complete solution for interception of its BlackBerry messenger services in January. The company had earlier given a manual solution for monitoring messenger services. There are about one million BlackBerry subscribers in India.

According to agencies, the directive will apply to all service providers, including RIM, Skype and others. By March 31, the Centre will also put into effect a security architecture for the telecom sector through which the government can deposit open software and new testing facility in certain forms. Last month, Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai had said telecom operators will have to stop any services that cannot be monitored, according to the satisfaction of law enforcement agencies.

RIM Vice-President (industry, government and university relations) Robert E Crow, who was in India recently, had said, “There is no possibility of us providing any kind of a solution. There is no solution, there are no keys to be handed... It's not possible to do so because the keys of the service are in possession of the corporate enterprises.”

The government had earlier extended the deadline to offer a final solution for access to its messenger and enterprise services to January 31, 2011. The earlier deadline was August 31, which was extended by 60 days to the end of October, 2010.

RIM uses powerful codes to encrypt email messages between BlackBerry devices and a computer known called a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which is designed to secure the emails. Security agencies have expressed concerns over the encrypted data and have asked for a decryption solution for its corporate mails and messenger services.