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

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?

Comments

And GnuPG?

[ciaran_o_riordan]

What about sending email with GnuPG?

Re:And GnuPG?

[stephanruby]

And so most European governments except the UK I take it. All European governments (except for the UK) have warned their own government officials and company executives NOT to use BlackBerry/RIM.

The main problem is that if you send a text, an IM, an email, or anything to the person sitting next to you in any European country you might be located in, it's encrypted all-right, but your blackberry will always route that message to the UK first (and the Canadian company Research In Motion is able to decrypt that message of course). And with the Anglo/Canadian/US/Australian intelligence-sharing pact and the presence of Echelon in the UK, that might as well mean you're letting the NSA and its friends index all your BlackBerry communications for US consumption.

India is not stupid. It would have to have known about this. Probably someone from the US/UK is still pressuring them to keep this trojan horse around their neck, as they're trying to get rid of it -- not wanting to make the US lose face -- still toeing the US anti-terrorist official line (hoping that they don't get sanctioned for this small act of insolence toward their masters).

No one does

[Rix]

So they don't care.

dupe

[phantomfive]

Wow, I haven't seen a dupe this bad in a long time. The story is still on the front page. Add to it the story of being detained at the border, Verizon changing router passwords, and the hacker tapping phones for $1500, and today is privacy Sunday, eh guys?

Re:dupe

[phantomfive]

Heh, so you are one of those guys who only reads the title and not the summary, I see. Sign up to be a Slashdot editor, they need more people like you.

When governments attack, only one thing matters

[countertrolling]

How can we can keep private, secure communications from being blocked?

Re:When governments attack, only one thing matters

[MysteriousPreacher]

By that logic no-one should complain if wiretaps were to be installed in restaurants. It's not reasonable to expect that no-one will overhear a conversation in a public place but quite reasonable to expect that there won't be microphones in your beef satay - at least not without proper judicial oversight.

Re:When governments attack, only one thing matters

[LaRainette]

braodcasting on a private network with encrypted protocols ?

Try to hack encrypted information from any company in the world and we'll see if someone wasn't expecting "privacy"... when your ass rots in jail.

Re:When governments attack, only one thing matters

[countertrolling]

Ya takes yer chances... Life's a gamble... No guarantees... I make the effort, hope for the best.. and expect the worst.. That way I'm never disappointed. I derive no benefit from simply lying down and living the lie. Yours may be a different story... Whatever makes you confortable

Re:When governments attack, only one thing matters

[countertrolling]

you're an idiot.

From you, I'll take that as a complement...

Now please, go take some reading lessons.

Re:When governments attack, only one thing matters

[countertrolling]

you are NOTHING

Ahhh, excellent :-) That's what I've been waiting for. What took you so long?

Re:When governments attack, only one thing matters

[LaRainette]

I just I didn't made myself very clear.
What i'm saying is the following : it's not because you use a public network (internet) that your communications are not private.
Indeed Most of the companies and NGO, government agencies and such USE internet with encrypted protocols and they DI intend they telecommunications to stay private (i.e. not decrypted by people who shouldn't)

Now the thing is if private corporations are allowed to encrypt their communications on a public network (and indeed they are) WHY THE FUCK would individuals not be entitled to the same right ?

This is why in most democracies, it's illegal to decrypt encrypted data, wherever it might be from (being your neighbour, Microsoft, or the NSA)

SO yes it is practical to expect privacy while using a public network, because you are entitled to it and protected by the laws of your country.

Re:/. fails again

[phantomfive]

What's the matter, are you an Indian-government apologist, or something? The title summarizes exactly what the Indian government wants.

It's not left-wing, either: neither the right nor the left in America wants the government to control communications (I'm not talking about congress people, of course).

Cum, not come

[jone_stone]

Am I really the first to point this out? The proper word there is "cum", not "come". Come on, people! Latin!

-David

Re:Cum, not come

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Am I really the first to point this out? The proper word there is "cum", not "come". Come on, people! Latin!

*smirk*

Of course the funny thing

[Sycraft-fu]

Is that the very secure nature of the Blackberrys is precisely why the US government loves the things so much. They are RIM's biggest customer. They love all the security features BBs have, and love the Exchange integration.

BB Really much more secure than IMAPS/SMTPS

[simpz]

..to a server outside the country.

Or is it that most people when using other smartphones don't know or just don't bother to use the SSL versions of these services.

Just the beginning

[joeszilagyi]

Any communications product, vendor, or service that can't be backdoored by government(s) will be banned.

Re:Government can't crack the encryption?

[bhagwad]

The privacy of Indian citizens is much more important than saving a few lives