The ongoing dispute between the Indian government and BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion took another twist when, in a submission to the Department of Telecom (DoT), the company claimed that there are four other companies with equally secure email platforms. The company said that targeting BlackBerry handsets and ignoring the others would not solve the security concerns that the Indian government says are behind its demands for access to BlackBerry emails.

The company named Nokia, Motorola, Microsoft and Seven Networks as other suppliers of equally secure mobile email services.

“In addition to BlackBerry, four other mobile e-mail solutions in market in India use comparable encryption levels - Windows Mobile ActiveSync, Nokia Intellisync, Motorola Good and Seven Networks,” RIM said, while also pointing out that email platforms accessed from desktop PC's were also encrypted.

“Thus, focusing on BlackBerry alone will not solve any security concerns over encryption,” RIM said in a presentation to the DoT.

The security encryption on BlackBerry handsets is based on the 256-Advanced Encryption Standard - and the Indian security services want either access to the encryption keys used - or for the security to be downgraded to a level which they can then break themselves.

India has over 114,000 BlackBerry customers among five operators - and these face being shut down if the government and RIM cannot find a suitable solution to the dilema.

Source:cellular-news