After wi-fi networks, the Mumbai police have turned their attention to BlackBerry smartphones. They believe terrorists could use the devices to communicate and send threatening e-mails.
Officers of the Cyber Crime Cell said BlackBerry communications are “too secure”. The communication between BlackBerry phones, experts have told the police, are virtually impossible to retrieve.
Sources in the Cyber Crime Cell, the Crime Branch unit that looks after Internet felonies, told Hindustan Times that senior officials met experts to find out how communication between BlackBerry users could be tapped.
Sources said the cell would soon raise the matter with the Centre for Emergency Response Team, the nodal agency for cyber regulation India.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Preventive) Sanjay Mohite, who heads the cell, said that though the police don’t have any complaint about misuse of BlackBerry phones, “we are concerned about their potential misuse”.
According to Internet guru Vijay Mukhi, the problems with BlackBerry phones stemmed from their “over secure” nature. He said unlike conversations or written communications through average mobile phones, BlackBerry communications were encrypted.
Unless the service provider parted with the encryption keys, the communication would become impossible to decode — the reason such smartphones are considered the best safeguards against corporate espionage. “This is why governments across the West don’t like such control-free communication,” Mukhi said.
{{/usCountry}}Unless the service provider parted with the encryption keys, the communication would become impossible to decode — the reason such smartphones are considered the best safeguards against corporate espionage. “This is why governments across the West don’t like such control-free communication,” Mukhi said.
{{/usCountry}}