RIM exec says India making ‘astonishing’ security demands

By on Mar 14, 2011 at 4:48 PM
Software March 14, 2011

Robert Crow, a VP for Research In Motion, recently told The Wall Street Journal that India’s security agencies are making “rather astonishing” demands for access to RIM’s secure messaging and email networks. India and RIM have been up in arms since October 2010 when India gave RIM until January 2011 to comply with India’s intelligence laws. RIM fired back in January saying that there was no possibility to provide access to its secure email services, but has allowed Indian authorities “lawful” access its BlackBerry Messenger service.  ”I think this may well go on and on in India, and frankly it will be one of those factors that people talk about in the Indian business environment—not one that will be seen in India’s favor in international comparison,” Crow said. Crow also discussed RIM’s plans to expand its footprint in India, where 11,000 developers work on BlackBerry apps, and added that there’s a possibility that RIM may begin to manufacture BlackBerry parts in India.Read

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27 Comments

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  • Max

    That’s all blackberries are good for. Street-defecating third-worlders. Oh, and tech morons stuck in the commodore 64 era.

    • 3rdworldgenius

      The 3rd worlders keep the IQ level high in the west world. Prick face.

      • http://tarchannon.livejournal.com/ Tarc

        Hardly. Cheap is always cheap, and the htird world is a cheap as you get.

      • sirpaul

        That’s why 3/4 of students at major universities are from Asian and so-called “3rd world” countries, right? Open your eyes.

    • Anonymous

      by ur tone am guessing u r one of them tobacco spitting polygamous southy sheep fucker…dont start this shit here..
      u know, especially when u wipe ur asses (with leaves before and now with paper) instead of washing it
      and yes showering daily was a alien concept till you saw it in so called 3rd world countries just about 100 years ago…streat defacting yes..but thats not due to culture, its more due to the poverty caused by the looting the so called 1st world countries did before and still do in some countries..hope this answers ur query….just stop this shit will ya…nobody’s clean….

  • Jroc869

    ef india.

    • F@&$$&@& U

      F Rim, RIM is rimmed and so are you.

  • Shawn Guse

    I don’t see a problem with this.

    • Drpratikb

      absolutely true.

  • Lolmoney

    you can bet USA already has this ability and more, lol rim.

    • StoppingBy

      Youre retarded. You clearly have no idea how BB enterprise works. Encryption keys are stored in 2 places only. On the blackberry and the users mailbox. When an email gets forwarded, it encrypts the message using the encryption keys in the mailbox. It forwards it over the network and once received by the BB, the BB uses the key stored locally to decrypt the message. If you intercept that message at any point after the BB server sends it and before it gets to the BB you need 300 years using 500 computers to decrypt a triple des encrypted message. Shut up.

  • Drpratik

    if india asks access ,its astonishing
    but if UAE asks for same , its complied to?
    what are we dealing with?
    why double standards?
    its coming to all companies not just RIM.
    more than that what about china?

    • Scratched

      Don’t worry. RIM is rimmed ( ie fucked ). They have 1 1/2 years to bankruptcy.

      • http://twitter.com/UrbanEnigma Yves

        Is this some kind of joke? They’re reporting record earnings every quarter and you think they’re going bankrupt? Go comment on something you actually know about

      • Anonymous

        Which is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

    • Anonymous

      Money talks?

    • RealDeal

      RIM has already offered India exactly what it gave to UAE, so there is no bias. India wants more, they want to decrypt messages sent via corporate BES servers. Problem is RIM has no way of doing that since the encryption key is randomly generated between the device and BES server upon activating the device. This is why corporations trust RIM, if they even admit there is a work around to decrypting meesages sent between blackberrry and BES it’s game over for RIM.

    • Todd

      India can get what it wants, they’re just too lazy. They are coming to RIM for what they want, when what they need to do is go to the company BES admins in India. They’re the ones who can do this for them, not RIM.

      • Drpratikb

        blackberry should install server in india.
        it will be pretty simple after that.
        honestly guys all this US and UK and other major countries d have these type of access to BES.
        terrorism is such evil thing which has cost US billions and billions are going down the drain.
        Terrorism needs to be checked and this (wiretapping all types of communications ) is need of hour for fighting the menace started by western world.

      • Anonymous

        Installing a BIS server in India is not going to resolve this (and they likely already have, to give access to BBM/public email). This is about corporate email account access; and that’s something that RIM is literally unable to do — they do not have access to the private keys used by individual corporations.

    • sirpaul

      I think they mentioned previously that it was technically impossible.

      ““There is no possibility of us providing any kind of a solution,” RIM VP Robert Crow said to reporters. “There is no solution. There are no keys to be handed.””

      “RIM would later state publicly that it does not have the capability to give the Indian government, or anyone else, access to emails sent and received using its corporate email solution.”

      “RIM gave the Indian government access to its BlackBerry Messenger service earlier this month, but complex email encryption will apparently not allow the company to provide similar access to its email services.”

  • phillyoceans

    Nice! Another government trying to completely violate their citizens privacy rights. Security risks my ass!

  • http://rmbo47.myopenid.com/ rmbo47

    India doesn’t understand how BlackBerrys work, and that’s just sad.

    • Drpratikb

      india does understand how blackberry works but india also knows how to protect technology falling in wrong hands.
      terrorism has used this type of technolgy during 26/11 attack and it needs to be checked.
      its nothing to do with money …

  • Anonymous

    Well… RIM is right about its user privacy as BlackBerry stands out for its secure communications. The nations are right about getting access in order to prevent terrorism…

    I think RIM will figure something out as India is a very important country for RIM. It has one of the largest customer base and if India stops using BlackBerry, then RIM will suffer a lot.

    • Anonymous

      How do you propose RIM break AES256 encryption – something nobody has succeeded in to date?

  • Drpratikb

    talking of money,
    no matter how much corrupted a country, be it US Uk or any major developed country.
    Its all about security and citizens security comes first and then comes your citizens privacy.
    just think about it.

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