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BlackBerry security issue makes e-com insecure
By siliconindia
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Friday, 14 March 2008, 02:10 IST
New Delhi: Indian operators offering BlackBerry services, top executives of Canadian telco Research in Motion (RIM), the company that owns the brand, security agencies and officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are expected to meet on March 14 to address the concerns of security agencies. The meeting is aimed at preventing termination of BlackBerry services after the March-end deadline, reported Business Standard.
BlackBerry has an estimated 400,000 subscribers in India. RIM has been asked to give access to its algorithms, according to a source.
"The security agencies are saying that we should have access to data that are being encrypted by services like BlackBerry on mobile phones and then decrypted when the phone reaches its nominated destination," the source added.
According to operators, if BlackBerry services are banned, security agencies could even target various e-commerce applications, especially money transfers, that use encryption.
"The argument can logically be extended to all encrypted transactions on wireless devices including banking, e-commerce, email and chat. It will also have a significant impact on privacy concerns for consumers. Much thoughts need to be applied before deciding on it," said Alok Shende, Practice Head, Datamonitor India.
Rajesh Chharia, President, Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), noted: "Routine check-ups are fine with us since the issue is one of national security. All ISPs must, and will, cooperate. What is of concern, though, is the fact that we have been asked to reduce the encryption from 128-bit to 40-bit, which is ridiculous."
The demand will put the entire online banking and e-commerce sectors in jeopardy. "Having represented our concerns, we have yet to receive a response from DoT on this issue," Chharia said.
"While the government's motive is good, the Indian Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 is very unclear on this subject," noted Pavan Duggal, Supreme Court advocate and cyber-law expert.
Some technology experts like Vijay Mukhi note that if the email originates from India, it can be intercepted at the wireless service provider's end, since the nodes are in India. The problem arises if the email originates from a BlackBerry device since it goes to a server outside India where it gets encrypted.
