India gives RIM BlackBerry ultimatum

RIM continues to come under fire for the encryption on its BlackBerry devices

India has become the latest country to inform RIM that it will block key BlackBerry services if it is not given access to encrypted data streams.

A statement from the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs said that information from BlackBerry Enterprises Services and BlackBerry Messenger must be made accessible to law enforcement agencies.

"If a technical solution is not provided by 31 August 2010, the government will review the position and take steps to block these two services from the network," said the statement.

"The meeting also took note of the fact that BlackBerry services like Voice SMS and BlackBerry Internet Service have been made available to law enforcement agencies."

However, it is not clear whether India will be happy with merely having access to unreadable encrypted data, or whether it is seeking to read the communications.

RIM has said previously that it is unable to accommodate this kind of request.

"The BlackBerry enterprise solution was designed to preclude RIM, or any third party, from reading encrypted information under any circumstances since RIM does not store or have access to the encrypted data," the firm said in a statement.

"RIM cannot accommodate any request for a copy of a customer's encryption key, since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator or any third party, ever possess a copy of the key."

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the first to object to RIM's enhanced encryption. BlackBerry handsets were dubbed a "national security risk" by the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority because data is taken offshore and "managed by a foreign, commercial organisation".

RIM was then forced to strike a deal with Saudi Arabia, after the kingdom declared that it was going to block BlackBerry Messenger.

The company appears to have agreed to hand over security codes, enabling authorities to read encrypted text messages on the BlackBerry Messenger service.

Algeria, Lebanon and Kuwait have expressed concerns, and other countries are likely to follow suit.