Blackberry Sets up Server in India

By siliconindia   |    1 Comments
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Bangalore: Complying with India’s security concerns, makers of Blackberry cell phones- Research in Motion (RIM) a Canadian based company has finally set up a server in Mumbai. This will help the Indian law enforcement agencies to get real time data and track the data of the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service; these servers will provide a mechanism for lawful interception of the messenger services.

"A team of officials from security agencies has inspected the server. Test runs are going on to check its effectiveness. Required permission for direct linkage for lawful interception of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) services is likely to be issued shortly," an official said.

The server has been set up in Mumbai considering the security issues related with the highly encrypted form of data. The BBM service by RIM was being used by certain forces including terrorists for anti social activities that were inimical to the country’s interests. The encrypted form of dataused in blackberry messenger was almost impossible to decode, with the new server in Mumbai the government can now monitor the BBM service in real time.

The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has also asked other service provider companies to follow suit. Nokia has been subjected to follow the same regulations like RIM so that its push mails can be legally tracked and intercepted as and when required by security agencies.

There is another service by Blackberry that is highly encrypted i.e. the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES, sources say that government is working out to decode keep a track of this service as well, and is nearing solution.

But as of now the BES does not project any serious consequences as it is mainly used by corporates for their business requirements.

DoT has informed the home ministry that there are about 5,000 corporations using BES to send secure emails to its employees.  The Blackberry smartphones send encrypted emails to the BES located with the service provider. The BES then decrypts these messages and sends it to the email server of the service provider where it is stored in decrypted form; the message is then processed and dropped to the BlackBerry device in encrypted form.

The talks of setting up a server in India, between Indian officials and Rim were going on for past two years. With this local server it is expected that the Blackberry bandwidth demand in India will go down by several notches.