RIM under pressure

Research In Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of popular BlackBerry phones, has offered India some access to BlackBerry instant messages. Talks, however, continue on the Indian demand that its law enforcement agencies be able to also monitor enterprise e-mail, according to reports.

India said that it will ask service providers in the country to ensure that some BlackBerry services should be made accessible to its law enforcement agencies by August 31, or face a block of these services.

The government is worried that online and mobile communications are increasingly being used by terrorists to plan their attacks. The Indian government has also discussed about a month ago plans to demand similar monitoring of services from Skype and Google, according to a person who attended the meeting.

Under Indian law, service providers have to give law enforcement agencies access to communications on their networks, under certain conditions, including by providing the keys for their decryption. RIM, however, indicated that it was less likely to give in on its enterprise service.

RIM has already clinched a deal earlier this month with Saudi Arabia. The local regulator dropped a threat to ban some BlackBerry services, after RIM agreed to provide it access to servers located in the country, according to reports.

Source: Computerworld.