Earlier today, I referenced a TechEYE.net story from December 21 and indicated that Research in Motion had caved in to India’s demands to provide an encryption key to Blackberry email services. I’ve corrected that post in light of additional information. A story in today’s Economic Times of India resulted in a strong response from Research in Motion to set the record straight on exactly what RIM agreed to – and didn’t agree to. Josh Halliday reports:
BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion has hit back at reports that it is ready to allow Indian authorities access to customers’ highly-secure corporate emails.
The Canadian manufacturer slammed as “false and technologically infeasible” an Economic Times of India report which said that it will allow the Indian government access to all messages and emails sent by its 400,000 BlackBerry customers in the country. An internal home ministry memo, apparently seen by the paper, suggested that RIM would automatically make readable all BlackBerry communications, including encrypted enterprise emails.
RIM quickly refuted the charges, saying that only an account holder has the necessary key to decrypt the messages. But it confirmed that security authorities and mobile operators will be granted “lawful access” to the popular BlackBerry Messenger chats.
Read more in the Guardian.
My apologies to Research in Motion for misunderstanding earlier reports.