The government, worried that militants could use BlackBerry’s heavily encrypted services to plan attacks, warned earlier this month it would start blocking emails and instant messages sent on the smartphones unless the company comes up with a way for security agencies to decode the traffic by August 31.
There were indications late last week the deadline might be pushed back beyond Tuesday’s deadline as BlackBerry’s Canadian makers, Research in Motion (RIM), scrambled to satisfy the authorities.
Minister of state for communications Sachin Pilot said he was “hopeful” a plan could be worked out with RIM.
The government — keen to project India as a fast-growing, investor-friendly economy — is “not in the business of shutting down services”, Pilot said, but stressed New Delhi was also not ready to sacrifice its security interests.
“these concerns have been addressed in other parts of the world. I see no reason why the government and (security) agencies should take any risk at all as far as technology (is concerned).”
Analysts have noted other security-conscious nations such as China and Russia appear to be satisfied over their intelligence agencies’ level of access to BlackBerry communications.
G.K. Pillai, the top bureaucrat in the home ministry, was due to hold a department meeting Monday to take a call on India’s next step. Officials have suggested RIM might be given a one or two-month extension of the deadline.
BlackBerry users said they hoped a shutdown could be averted.
India BlackBerry users hold breath over ban, Network security software