Wednesday, May 07, 2008; Posted: 05:22 PM
The DoT has admitted that in a communication to India's foreign secretary, RIM had raised the issue that other companies too were in similar violations. The DoT was responding to a communication from the office of the foreign secretary, which had sought details of the ongoing BlackBerry saga. The DoT's communications also adds that RIM had named Skype as another service provider whose services in India are above the 40-bit encryption standards. Encryption means converting data and emails into algorithmic codes that travel through the network and later get decoded into the original form.
The issues relates to the fact that data on RIM network flows with the 256-Advanced Encryption Standard, but India's security and intelligence agencies are not equipped to intercept encryption standards of only up to 40-bit encryption. Several Internet Service Providers (ISPs) here that ET spoke supported RIM's argument and said that many Indian companies, including most airline, telcos, banks and even the Indian Railways' online portals were all offering commercial transactions above the 40-bit encryption standard.
"The DoT had earlier asked all ISPs to slash encryption levels from the 128-bit standard to a 40-bit level, but we have been unable to do so. This is because, more commercial portals, some of which are also owned by government departments such as the Railways, Indian Airlines, telecom PSUs all offer services at the 128-bit encryption standards. Before we scale it down to the 40-bit, these portals must rework their facility for online commercial transactions," explained an official with the internet service providers association of India (ISPAI), the body representing all internet service providers in India. Globally, the 128-bit standard is followed for all online transactions.
DoT sources also say that once the BlackBerry issue is addressed, the department will come down heavily on all portals and ISPs whose encryption standards were beyond the 40-bit. This will mean the ultra-cheap internet telephony services offered by Skpe and other such global majors will soon be under the government's scrutiny. The larger implication in that all commercial transactions over the mobile handset or via the internet in India will be subject to a mere 40-bit encryption, making them unsafe, when compared to the standards followed globally.
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