Telcos ready with tech to intercept BlackBerry services
Thursday, 28 October 2010, 16:52 IST
Printer Print Email Email
New Delhi: The Telecom Ministry is understood to have written to the Home Ministry about operators' compliance with a rule on upgradation of systems to intercept data sent using BlackBerry messenger and e-mail services. Leading operators including Airtel, Vodafone, state-run BSNL, Idea and Reliance Communications (RCom) are believed to have informed DoT that their systems are ready to lawfully intercept BlackBerry messenger services, telecom ministry sources said here. RCom, however, is understood to have raised doubts about the confidentiality of the interception process and fears that intercepted data could leak over the internet. Nevertheless, the Telecom Ministry has written to Home Ministry and the Intelligence Bureau about operators' readiness to demonstrate the interception technology. The government had on September 16 asked operators to upgrade their systems to monitor data sent via Blackberry messenger and enterprise e-mail services, as it feels the encrypted services could be used by terror elements to organise attacks. RCom, sources said, informed DoT that under the Lawful Interception Monitoring (LIM) system, a computer at the operators' end would be connected to the internet on one side and to LIM on the other. BlackBerry vendor Research-in-Motion would run certain tools in the PC and push the intercepted contents over internet to their premises, where the content would be decoded and pushed back to the operator. RCom fears this would expose the confidentiality of the very interception process and is believed to have asked the government to review the process. Sources said Tata Teleservices and Aircel too have reported compliance, although two others - state-run MTNL and Shyam-Sistema are yet to inform about their system upgradation. The government has given RiM time until end of January 2011 to give its intelligence agencies full access to all BlackBerry services, which are currently routed through a server located outside the country.
Source: PTI
siliconindia