India's security agencies were testing ways to access corporate e-mails on BlackBerry devices by obtaining encrypted data in a readable format, a government source said yesterday.
Research In Motion (RIM) has until the end of the month to give Indian authorities the means to track and read BlackBerry Enterprise |e-mail and its separate BlackBerry Messenger service.
The government, concerned about the potential for militants to use the secure BlackBerry network to carry out attacks, has vowed to shut the services if RIM fails to comply, cutting it out of one of the world's fastest-growing telecoms market.
An RIM technical team in New Delhi has been working with the Department of Telecoms and security agencies to find a way out.
RIM uses powerful codes to encrypt e-mail messages as they travel between a BlackBerry device and a computer known as a BlackBerry enterprise server that is designed to secure those |e-mails.
Indian telecom officials said they had been told by RIM the only way an e-mail could be intercepted was when it temporarily stores itself in an Enterprise server in a decrypted form while travelling between two BlackBerry devices.
Indian agencies are now checking if they have the technology to monitor |e-mails when they get briefly stored in the server. It is not possible to unscramble |e-mails at any other stage. RIM says it does not have a master key that controls every system in its network.
"There have been a number of suggestions offered and this is one of them. A technical team will check those suggestions over the next few days," a senior government source said.
India said this week that it would allow the Messenger service to continue beyond the deadline as it had been assured access to the services, but could shut down the secure e-mail service if access was not given by then.