Security agencies give thumbs up to solutions offered by RIM

NEW DELHI: Security agencies have given a thumbs up to solutions offered by BlackBerry makers, Research In Motion, to track its messenger services , but is still sorting out some technical issues in gaining access to corporate e-mail .

Expressing satisfaction at the solutions implemented since August 1 to help intelligence agencies track BlackBerry Messenger services, a senior government official said: “The solutions are working fine. They are working manually now and will go automatic in due course.”

However, the official indicated that opening up enterprise mail was proving tricky and would require more extensive discussions between technical experts from RIM and security agencies.

“The technical issues for accessing corporate e-mail are more complicated than we had thought... discussions are on with RIM to sort them out,” the official said adding that the government had time until October 31 to do so. Sources even indicated that this deadline may be extended if discussions made headway but could not conclude by October 31.

Sources said the Canadian smartphone maker would fly in a fresh team of technical experts for more detailed discussions with the security agencies next week.

India is insisting that all data traffic routed through BlackBerry smartphones be made interceptible to its security agencies in view of terror and other concerns.

RIM had initially expressed its inability to share the encryption key but later come around and offered some technical solutions to help track its services . The feasibility of these solutions is now being evaluated.