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Research In Motion Discusses BlackBerry Security Concerns with Indian Officials

6:55 am on May 29, 2008 | Category: Email, Mobile Devices, Web Services, Wireless

Research In Motion, the Waterloo, Ontario-based manufacturer of BlackBerry devices, is meeting with Indian officials today to discuss concerns raised by the country’s security agencies.

Officials claim that the BlackBerry email service poses a possible security risk, given that communications cannot be traced or intercepted by the government. Although RIM said last week that it would look into a compromise solution, it later revealed that it would be “simply be unable to accommodate” any request to provide the encryption keys of customers.

“The Blackberry security architecture for enterprise customers is purposefully designed to exclude the capability for Research in Motion (RIM) or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances,” RIM told the Times of India newspaper.

There are currently around 115,000 BlackBerry users in India, served by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar, and BPL Mobile. The country’s fast growing mobile communications market shows great promise for RIM, but for the BlackBerry to maintain its strong brand reputation in India and other markets, its high standard of respect for consumer privacy must remain intact.

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