RIM unable to provide India with BlackBerry email monitoring

The country's government is concerned that terrorists could use encrypted services to co-ordinate attacks.

"There is no possibility of us providing any kind of a solution," RIM vice-president Robert Crow told Reuters. "There is no solution, there are no keys to be handed."

The statement comes just days before RIM's deadline of 31 January to enable the Indian government to monitor encrypted data transmitted on the smartphones.

RIM had announced this month that it had implemented a solution to give the Indian government access to BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and BlackBerry Internet Service email.

This is not an issue unique to BlackBerry. BlackBerry represents a very small fraction of the total population of VPNs (virtual private networks) in India, said Crow.

RIM has also faced pressure from Saudi Arabia and the UAE to provide access to some of its data, including access to BlackBerry's encrypted corporate e-mail service and messaging services.

This story was first published by Computer Weekly
 

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