NEW DELHI: The stalemate between the government and the Canadian manufacturer of BlackBerry has been resolved as Research in Motion (RIM) Ltd has given intel agencies real-time access to its messenger service, implying that the sleuths can now read messages sent from one BlackBerry to another. Also, the government has got backdoor access to BlackBerry Enterprise Server as the agencies will be provided access as per specific requests to service providers.
Confirming the news, sources said the move would give a great boost to the counter-terrorism efforts of the government. “For BlackBerry Enterprise Server, agencies would have indirect access through the service providers, who then will take specific queries to RIM. However, the government is looking for real-time access to the servers. This part is still being worked at.”
A team of government officials has already inspected the server. However, it is not exactly the solution wanted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which would have preferred capability to decode messages by itself so that it could conduct surveillance without disclosing the name of the suspects to the BlackBerry manufacturer.
Next on the agenda is interception of emails through Yahoo and Gmail, with the MHA directing the Department of Telecom (DoT) to ask the service providers to ensure that all emails accessed from India are routed through servers located in India.
The government and BlackBerry manufacturers were in a logjam over its services in India as security agencies had raised a red flag over its operations citing non-availability of procedures to intercept its messenger service and enterprise mail.