MobilePhone.co.in

DoT has recently stated that they have got a formula which will help their security agencies to get the access to the corporate emails on Blackberry handsets.

The only issue which remained unsolved between the Blackberry maker RIM and security agencies of India is on the access to the enterprise emails which is used by the corporate and if the claims of finding a solution to this by DoT proves to be correct then there is a hope that the services of Blackberry will not be banned after August 31^st which was declared earlier.

The telecom department stated that whenever a corporate email is sent through an enterprise server on a Blackberry device, a copy of the same can also be sent to the monitoring system which will be installed by the ISP’s in the country. DoT however feels that RIM will not agree to their solution of setting up a server in India or setting up the servers at all the ISP premises. This week earlier, it was agreed by RIM that they will provide partial access of its messenger services to the security agencies of the country by 1^st September and by the end of the year, complete access for the same will be provided. But no solution was offered by RIM for its services of corporate email.

The Blackberry makers, Research In Motion has already been given a deadline of 31^st August to comply with the security norms of the Indian Government and in the same row of action, the telecom operators of the country are also given a deadline of 31^st August so as to monitor the services of Blackberry.

Tata Teleservices has been asked so as to make sure that monitoring capabilities for the services of Blackberry are available. Confirming the news, the statement of Tata Teleservices stated that “We have received a letter … asking us to ensure that legal intervention capability is put in place for Blackberry services by 31 August 2010.”

One of the other major mobile operators who provide the services of Blackberry has also given confirmation that they have received the letter from the India Government for monitoring of the Blackberry services.

Research In Motion has been given a deadline till 31^st of August to provide the access to the security agencies for reading the emails and instant messages which are sent through Blackberry. The government has stated that if RIM fails to meet the deadline its services will be banned in India.

It has been recently stated by the telecom regulator of Saudi Arabia that they will not ban the operations of Blackberry Messenger services as some of the regulatory requirements of the country are met by the Blackberry makers, Research In Motion (RIM).

Though the regulatory requirements were not specified by the CITC but they stated that they have decided to continue the messenger services of Blackberry and are working with the service providers so as to take care of the remaining requirements of regulatory.

It has still not yet been stated by the telecom regulator of Saudi Arabia that whether they have reached to a final agreement with Research In Motion regarding the security concerns of the country. The local phone operators along with CITC have entered into a preliminary agreement with RIM so as to use the local data services. It is being expected that it has been agreed by RIM to hand over the desirable codes.

For all the Blackberry users in India who are worried about the present tussle between the Indian Government and Blackberry Makers, there does not seem to be a sigh of relief as Research In Motion has ruled out any possibility of selective email decoding.

The special secretary of Internal security with the Home Ministry of India, U K Bansal stated that “This matter is still under discussion. There is certain amount of confidentiality in these talks. We cannot share such information.”

He also stated that it is early to speculate the measure to be taken but the security issues will not be compromised at any cost.

The spokesperson of RIM stated that their company respects the Government’s regulatory requirement as well as the privacy and security needs of the consumers and corporate users but the data encryption is not something which is unique to the Blackberry devices only.

Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State for Communication, has recently stated that government is hoping to get the solution very soon which will not to invade the privacy of the citizen but for the security issues only.

Today, the telecom minister, A. Raja has stated that the telecom ministry of the country is in talks with the Blackberry makers, Research In Motion and they expect that the solution to the problem will be soon find out.

Few days ago the government of India has asked RIM to provide the access to the technology that will enable the security agencies of the country to keep a check on the contents failing to which the services of the Blackberry will be banned in India. But in response to this request, Research In Motion expressed its inability for the same.

Research In Motion stated that they have a security architecture which is based on the symmetric key system and these keys can only be created by the customers and neither RIM nor any third party can have access to this data.

Indian government has concerns that the services of Blackberry can be used by the militants as the security agencies do not have the access to the messages which are sent through Blackberry.

It seems to be a tough time for the Blackberry makers, Research In Motion as Indonesia is the addition to the list of the countries who are considering to put ban on the services of Blackberry over the security issues.

Recently United Arab Emirates has stated that the Blackberry services will be banned in the country from11th of October this year. It was stated by UAE that the services will be banned till any acceptable solution is developed and applied.

Saudi Arabia has also recently planned to ban the services of Blackberry and India is also facing issues with the company over security matters which if not solved will lead to the ban.

Regarding their apprehensions, the spokesman for the Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information, Gatot Dewabroto stated that “We don’t know whether data being sent through BlackBerry’s can be intercepted or read by third parties outside the country.”

With the announcement made by Indonesia to join UAE and Saudi Arabia in putting the ban on Blackberry, the shares of RIM has made a loss of $2.7 billion in just 2 days.

The Blackberry security issue does not seem to have an end and the latest news might not be a good one for all the users of Blackberry handset as the Research In Motion has recently expressed their inability to provide the access to the encrypted data to the security agencies of the country.

Sometime back the government of India has warned Blackberry makers to provide the technology to the security agencies of the country which will enable them to monitor the contents and the government also stated that if RIM will not agree to this they will have to close down its operation in India.

Research in Motion, regarding the privacy and security of its customers stated that “The Blackberry security architecture for enterprise customers is purposefully designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances.”

It was also stated by RIM that the security architecture of the customers is based in the symmetric key system where the keys are created by the customers themselves and only they have the copy of this key.

The company also stated that they do not have any master key and even does not have any back door exit in the system that can allow them or any other party to have access to the data.

It has been recently stated by the government of India that they have received the assurance from the makers of Blackberry- Research in Motion that the security issues will be taken care of. It has also been stated that the Canadian Company and the security agencies of India will be on the same track.

The special secretary in the ministry of the home affairs, UK Bansal said that “Blackberry has assured the Ministry of Home Affairs that the issue of monitoring of the Blackberry will be sorted out soon…I am sure we will soon be on the same page and our concerns will be addressed.”

Few days back the Government of India has warned RIM that if they will not allow the Indian security agencies to keep a check a check on emails and SMSes then the operations of the company will be banned in India. This step was taken in order to look after the security concerns. With the assurance given by the Blackberry makers, all the users of this smart phone can now take a breath of relief.

Research In Motion has reported that it has earned revenue of USD 4.2 billion for its 1^st fiscal quarter to 29^th of May which is 24% up as compared to the year earlier period. The EPS rose 41% to USD 1.38. RIM has shipped 11.2 million Blackberry handsets in the quarter which is 42% up as compared to the last year and including its 100 millionth device.

The subscriber’s account of Blackberry has risen by 4.9 million to total of 46 million. It is being stated by RIM that they expect the growth to accelerate in the 2^nd half of the year due to the launch of its new products. For the 2^nd quarter fiscal, the company had forecast revenue of USD 4.4 to 4.6 billion, addition in subscriber of 4.9 to 5.2 million and EPS of USD 1.33 to 1.40.

An operating cash flow of USD 1.12 billion has been generated by RIM in the 1^st quarter and by the end of May with USD 3.27 billion in cash. It is being planned by the company so as to buy back its own shares of up to 31 million by next year thus taking the total share buybacks till date to 10% of the outstanding shares.