RIM, Nokia and Apple might have given backdoor access to the Indian military

A DOCUMENT has surfaced suggesting that three top mobile phone vendors might have given the Indian military backdoor access in exchange for market presence.

The hacking group behind the Symantec hack, called The Lords of Dharmaraja, has revealed information regarding an alleged deal by RIM, Nokia and Apple with the Indian government. The document, entitled "Tactical network for cellular surveillance", is an internal memo from the Indian military, where the hackers claim to have got their information.

Within the document, it says that a decision was made to "sign an agreement with mobile manufacturers in exchange for the Indian market presence" and RIM, Nokia and Apple are specifically mentioned (RINOA).

It appears that the deal was used to gain backdoor access from the mobile vendors that was then employed to spy on the US China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

The document says, "In addition to the MI task force activities within the USCC network (utilised backdoors provided by RINOA) the following transmittal logs provided by CYCADA team are of particular interest."

Security and privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian tweeted:

Instead of worrying about hackers getting access to 5+ year old Norton code we should worry about what NSA/US Military does with recent code

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) January 8, 2012

At this point, I wouldn't trust Apple's iCloud encryption for anything. No public details + recent Indian gov backdoor memos = Assume evil.

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) January 8, 2012

RIM hasn't provided us with a statement but instead pointed us towards its "core principles for addressing lawful access requirements". Point four says, "RIM maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries."

That "core principle", however, does not seem to be consistent with the hackers' claim that such an agreement was in fact made with Indian military.

Nokia said, "While we cannot comment on the authenticity of the reports cited, Nokia takes the privacy of customers and their data seriously and we are committed to comply with all applicable data protection and privacy laws."

We are still waiting for comment from the fruit themed firm.

Update
Apple hasn't provided us with an elaborate comment but a spokesman said, "I can deny that backdoor access was provided." µ