Forced by another government ultimatum that threatens one of its fastest-growing overseas markets, RIM RIM-T has outlined in the greatest detail to date exactly what lengths it goes to – and will go to – in order to help governments monitor BlackBerry communication.
RIM’s response signals that what started out as a headache for the company has grown to such a level that it is now forced to address it more publicly.
The Indian government yesterday imposed a deadline for Research In Motion and its telecom carrier partners to give state security agencies access to two types of encrypted BlackBerry communications – for the first time specifically stating which BlackBerry services it is most concerned about, and which it can already monitor.
Should the government not receive such access by the end of the month, it threatens to shut down certain BlackBerry services in the country, which is home to more than one million BlackBerry users.
India’s Press Information Bureau issued a statement Thursday saying the country’s Home Secretary, Shri G.K.Pillai, met with security and telecommunications agency representatives.
During the meeting, the government asked telecom carriers to make two BlackBerry services available to security officials by the end of the month.
One is the BlackBerry Enterprise server, which is RIM’s more secure product, used mainly by corporations, and the other is the BlackBerry Messenger Service, used by businesses and consumers alike.
“If a technical solution is not provided by 31st August, 2010, the government will review the position and take steps to block these two services from the network,” the statement said.
“The meeting also took note of the fact that the Blackberry services like Voice, SMS and BIS [RIM’s consumer BlackBerrys] have been made available to Law Enforcement Agencies.”
In response, RIM issued a press release in which it confirmed for the first time that it does in fact provide certain capabilities to telecom carriers “for “lawful” access purposes.”
But the company quickly added that it “has drawn a firm line” by insisting any help it does give carriers be limited by four criteria:
– that such capabilities “be limited to the strict context of lawful access and national security requirements as governed by the country’s judicial oversight and rules of law”
– that the capabilities be “technology and vendor neutral,” effectively meaning that RIM won’t be subject to burdens its competitors aren’t also subject to
– that RIM isn’t forced to change the fundamental security architecture behind its enterprise product
– that RIM maintains a “global standard” for lawful access and makes no special deals with individual countries.
The company also reiterated that, “contrary to any rumours, the security architecture is the same around the world and RIM truly has no ability to provide its customers’ encryption keys.”
For RIM, both requests from the Indian government represent different risks. The company has repeatedly touted the security of its enterprise product, saying in a statement earlier this month: “The BlackBerry enterprise solution was designed to preclude RIM, or any third party, from reading encrypted information under any circumstances since RIM does not store or have access to the encrypted data.” Acquiescing to the Indian government’s demand for access to enterprise communication would undermine that stance.
While the BlackBerry Messenger is less of an business-targeted product, it has been front and centre in RIM’s recent advertising push. The company has featured it promptly in dedicated television ads and on its Facebook page. As such, seeing it disappear from a fast-growing consumer market such as India would prove a major setback to RIM’s branding and marketing efforts.
RIM is believed to be on the verge of reaching an agreement with authorities in Saudi Arabia – with the help of the Canadian government – to keep BlackBerry services running in the country, in exchange for giving Saudi authorities greater access to communication data. Less is known about the state of talks with the Indian government.
