New Delhi:
Mobile handsets Blackberrys face a dark future in India. The reason: emails, SMSes and messengers on Blackberry cannot be cracked easily as these services are highly encrypted.
The government says it is a big security risk. Blackberry officials today met Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officials and explained their position on some of the tricky security questions. They will be making a similar presentation to the Home Ministry after which a decision on Blackberry services will be taken.
After a series of terror strikes in 2007 and 2008, security agencies noticed some emails routed through Research in Motion (RIM) servers in Canada.
So they felt the need to monitor Blackberry communications but couldn't crack the code.
Research in Motion, the Canada based maker of Blackberry refused to reduce the level of encryption that would allow Indian security agency's to keep a watch.
Research in Motion was told to reduce the level of encryptions in January 2008 but it hasn't done so far.
The government's fresh warning won't affect Blackberry users immediately as the company has asked the government for more time.
However, government sources say, the final call won't be a tough one given the choice between concerns about individual privacy and fighting terror.