India rejects RIM's encryption key suggestion

Indian authorities are unhappy with suggestions proposed by BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion in response to requests for access to encrypted device data, according to reports.

The Indian Economic Times suggested on Friday that Research In Motion's (RIM) proposals were not satisfactory to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The proposals included DoT directly approaching enterprises to request encryption keys for the manufacturer's smartphones.

In an internal memo seen by the newspaper, the Indian authorities noted that they were still unable to monitor or intercept email or instant messages sent through RIM's encrypted BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

"RIM maintains that it does not have the keys that can be offered to security agencies for converting secure corporate email into readable format," a spokesperson for the department is quoted as saying.

A RIM spokesman declined to comment on the issue, when approached by ZDNet UK on Friday.

RIM customers had previously faced a ban to start on 31 August on the use of BlackBerry devices' email and messaging services within the country if the company failed to hand over encryption keys. However, the deadline was extended by authorities until the 31 October.

In August, the Canadian smartphone maker received similar notifications from several other countries, including the UAE, Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The countries were concerned over their inability to monitor information sent from the devices' email, messaging and web-browsing services.

In a statement provided at the time, RIM said it could not provide encryption keys for BES users, adding that it would only grant access to its systems "in the strict context of lawful access and national security requirements". It also said that "RIM maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries".

However, the company was quoted in the Wall Street Journal later in the month, saying it has "a setup to help... security agencies in tracking the messages in which security agencies are interested".

India has demanded similar information from multinational corporations operating within the country. On 1 September, the country's authorities demanded that Skype and Google allow officials to monitor their customers' data or face being banned from operating in the world's second-most-populated nation.