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RIM Helps Indian Authorities Access BlackBerry Messages

Posted by Soulskill on from the giving-up-the-ghost dept.

judgecorp writes "RIM has set up a surveillance facility in India to help the authorities monitor users' BlackBerry messages, according to reports. This comes after a long argument in which RIM at first tried to resist opening up to Indian government scrutiny."

6 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Don't glare at RIM by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Indian government (among others) will twist arms of any and all carriers to get what they want. Even in the US the gummint will get what it wants one way or another.

    Want privacy? Write your own encryption and scramble everything you share with your mates.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Don't glare at RIM by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

      The Indian government (among others) will twist arms of any and all carriers to get what they want.

      Twisting arms is exactly what it will take to get plaintext from a carrier that's carrying properly configured IMAP/TLS traffic, except it has to be the arm of the user or the server admin - all the carrier can do is block it.

      RIM's architecture puts it as the weakest link in the real security model. Serious people have known this for a decade. So much so, that the Indians are only going to catch stupid and small-time criminals.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  2. This is perfectly fine by idiot900 · · Score: 2

    Nobody in the Indian government would ever consider misusing this surveillance capability. As we all know, Indian government workers do not take bribes, the rich and powerful only have the same rights as anybody else, and the Indian government has a long history of the utmost integrity. There is no reason for anyone using BlackBerry who is concerned about their privacy to switch to another provider.

  3. Don't worry by mr1911 · · Score: 2

    This will be restricted to only legitimate reasons for data. There is absolutely no way it will be abused.

    --
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    Any offense taken to this post is at your sole discretion.
  4. Re:I read this as by ve3oat · · Score: 2

    I read it differently. Since the Indian government can already read the communications from all other brands of mobile phone, they have now asked RIM to help them break into the more secure transmissions from Blackberries. It was inevitable.

  5. Why BB especially? by doston · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The US government is able to go into any of the cell providers data side and look at anything with no warrant and no notice to the carrier. Both carriers I worked for provided back doors into the SMS/MMS platforms. The feds even had their own cutesy username (Leo) and password was equally adorable. Why bother with a warrant when you can just go look at the info, then if you see anything interesting, ask for the warrant. Apparently it saves Leo time. Marriage of corporations and governments = what?? That's right, folks.