The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has written to the Home Ministry about operators’ compliance with a rule on upgradation of systems to intercept data sent using Blackberry messenger and e-mail services, according to news reports.
Operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications (RCOM) are believed to have informed DoT that their systems are ready to lawfully intercept Blackberry messenger services.
However, RCOM is understood to have raised doubts about the confidentiality of the interception process and fears that intercepted data could leak over the internet. The company has informed DoT that under the Lawful Interception Monitoring (LIM) system, a computer at the operators’ end would be connected to the internet on one side and to LIM on the other. Blackberry vendor Research-in-Motion would run certain tools in the PC and push the intercepted contents over internet to their premises, where the content would be decoded and pushed back to the operator.
RCOM fears this would expose the confidentiality of the very interception process and is believed to have asked the government to review the process.
