BlackBerry to give 'metadata'; security agencies quiet

Blackberry has made a fresh attempt to break the logjam over its services in India by offering "metadata" and relevant information to security agencies which will enable them in lawful interception but has failed to enthuse them.

According to minutes of the meeting between government officials and Canadian firm Research in Motion (RIM), makers of BlackBerry, RIM representatives explained that BlackBerry mobile device sends the encrypted email which is sent to BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) located with the service provider.

BES decrypts the messages and sends it to email server of the service provider where it remains stored in decrypted form. Then the message is pushed to the BlackBerry device in encrypted form.

After some persuasion, the representatives agreed that "they can provide the metadata of the message like Internet Protocol address of BES and PIN and International Mobile Equipment Identity of the BlackBerry mobile," sources said.

Metadata is loosely defined as data about data. It provides information about a certain item's content like how large the picture is, the colour depth, the image resolution, when the image was created, and other data. A text document's metadata may contain information about how long the document is, who the author is, when the document was written, and a short summary of the document.

However, the sources said the RIM, which has nearly one million subscribers in India, failed to enthuse the security agencies who want an uninterrupted access to the messaging services on BlackBerry platform.

The security agencies apprehend that BlackBerry services in the present format posed a serious security threat.

The government had said the onus of giving access to security agencies to monitor the information on these smart phones lies with the service providers.

According to the licensing conditions, the service providers are liable to put in a mechanism to allow the security agencies to intercept any conversation or message of any subscriber whenever required.

As telecom service providers like Airtel, Vodafone, RCom, the Tatas and the government-run BSNL and MTNL are offering BlackBerry services, it is the responsibility of these operators to ensure that the security agencies get access to all services they offer.