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RIM's Encryption 'Too Secure' For Indian Government's Taste

Posted by timothy on from the nsa-smiles-and-nods-politely dept.

climenole writes "Research in Motion, the creator of the widely used enterprise-cum-consumer BlackBerry device, has an uncertain position in India. The Indian government's internal security and intelligence services cannot break the encryption of the device, which makes countering terror threats and national security matters difficult — especially for a region which faces constant threats and attacks from domestic Maoist insurgents and extremist Islamic groups." Does it make you wonder how much safer everyone would be if parkas, mailing envelopes, cash, and superglue were all evaluated on the same basis?

8 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And GnuPG? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    The Indian Government can go to Hell for all I care. Period. Full stop.

  2. /. fails again by david_bandel · · Score: 0, Troll

    Don't take any articles that /. posts with it's hilariously childishly biased language in the subject header seriously. /. has one of the most embarrassingly airheaded left-wing biases I've ever seen in a news outlet.

  3. Re:When governments attack, only one thing matters by Michael+Kristopeit · · Score: 0, Troll
    how are they keeping you from having it? the corporation unwilling to fight with the government is keeping you from having it. RIM offered the service. RIM is now not offering the service. the people you've entrusted (to provide you with services you are in no way guaranteed) have let you down. you have no one to blame but yourself.

    trust me, i'd win regardless if the government was corrupt or not... "republocrat" or not, or even existed or not. you are a whining child. you want to provide a channel for terrorists to secretively communicate? go ahead. don't do it believing no one should care or will attempt to stop you... or do you believe people don't have the right to attempt to stop people doing things they disagree with? the whining child turns hypocritical awfully quickly.

  4. Re:When governments attack, only one thing matters by Michael+Kristopeit · · Score: 0, Troll

    well then, if you are already expecting privacy, then why do you need to encrypt?

  5. Easy to talk... by BangaIorean · · Score: 0, Troll

    I want to see the American reaction if Mexico were to suddenly turn into a terrorist sponsor state with the Al-Qaeda operating from Mexican soil. Imagine that tomorrow, Mexico becomes a country which churns out madarssa 'educated' men by the droves who are unemployable and have only one goal in life - Jihad against America. And in addition, imagine that Mexico constantly disputes the ownership of Arizona and sends men into Arizona to lob grenades and detonate bombs near railroads and bus stations.

    The above situation pretty accurately describes Pakistan. India has been experiencing Islamic terrorism long before most current-generation Americans were born. I do not mind the Government monitoring suspected blackberry communication (Remember, India is HUGE - it is simply NOT possible to monitor ALL blackberry communication). I don't want even one more ISI-trained terrorist to enter my country and detonate a bomb. And anyway, as if the RAW even cares about my blacknerry conversations with my manager, girlfriend and sundry others!

    1. Re:Easy to talk... by BangaIorean · · Score: 0, Troll

      "Actually the US would just bomb Mexico back to the stone age"

      No, that they wouldn't. Not if Mexico had nuclear weapons, with a history of selling nuclear technology to countries like North Korea.

      Yeah, Indian policy through the decades has been rather pussy-ish w.r.t. this Pak-terror business. But the USA in a similar situation wouldn't dare to take the risk of losing Phoenix or Los Angeles. What I'm saying is, asymmetrical warfare has its own set of rules.

      Observe that most Indians who have commented on this post support the move by intelligence agencies to monitor blackberry. And that's not because we enjoy having our conversations snooped upon - we just think it is a necessary tradeoff. And like I said, anyway the intelligence agencies are least interested in my conversations with my girlfriend or grandmothers exchanging recipes!

    2. Re:Easy to talk... by BangaIorean · · Score: 0, Troll

      Ugh.. how is this modded troll? It is remarkably on-topic and shows by example, why the Indian context is different from the American one in aspects such as communications monitoring!

      May the lice of a thousand camels infest the fuckwit mod who modded this troll.

  6. Re:When governments attack, only one thing matters by Michael+Kristopeit · · Score: 0, Troll

    hope that you weren't.