Are Google and Skype India's next security targets?

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 13 Aug 2010 at 09:41

India plans on following its action against BlackBerry by going after messaging services from Google and Skype, according to a report in the Financial Times.

India is looking at ways it can intercept and monitor what its citizens are saying in communications amid fears that militants could use inaccessible and encrypted services such as the BlackBerry and services from Google and Skype to plan terror attacks.

Quoting minutes from a July meeting regarding the possibility of closing down Research in Motion's email and instant messaging services in the country, the FT suggested the action against the BlackBerry manufacturer could be the thin end of the wedge.

"There was consensus that there was more than one type of service for which solutions are to be explored. Some of them are BlackBerry, Skype, Google etc," the departmental minutes of the meeting said. "It was decided first to undertake the issue of BlackBerry and then the other services."

India yesterday set a deadline of 31 August for RIM to satisfy its security officials over access to user accounts and communications.

The news that other communications providers are also in the frame might come as bitter-sweet relief for BlackBerry, which has been singled out by a number of countries – most notably Saudia Arabia – and threatened with local closure if it did not comply with the data access wishes of local security forces.

The company has hit back at what it feels is a witch hunt by saying it should be treated no differently from other mobile messaging providers.

In a statement to customers – many of them security conscious corporates and governments – the company said it tried to be as cooperative as possible with governments in supporting legal and national security requirements, “while also preserving the lawful needs of citizens and corporations”.

RIM said that while it would comply with the laws in each country in which it operates, it would demand that mobile carriers treated all communication equally if they were given powers to access messages.

“The carriers’ capabilities must be technology and vendor neutral, allowing no greater access to BlackBerry consumer services than the carriers and regulators already impose on RIM’s competitors and other similar communications technology companies,” the company said.