The Security Berry-meter | Security and The Blackberry

Blackberry Security

Flak upon flak, hay upon hay, has been dumped on the Blackberry, and its maker, RIM, since the announcement, few days ago, of availability of >a code allowing someone to turn the berry into a microphone. This is not an indictment against RIM, conversely – it is a triumph.

Unlike other electronic “toys” (such as the iPhone, see my article here and my other article >here), Blackberry always took security seriously. From the secure implementation of the “BES” system, to almost-bullet-proof browser, attacks against the Berry and its Operating Systems, have been many.

Successes have been very few.

There is still no other device with quite the popularity of the Berry, especially within the corporate world. Its Outlook integration is second to none. The push technology was revolutionary, and the keyboard lent to such historical quotes, as made by my pal Howard (More time in the Air than on the Ground) Schmidt: “Our next generation will be born with all thumbs” because of the Berry.

It took over ten years for such a “hack” as the listening software to be available. And it is not even a hack. It is no more a hack than a user being asked, in bold letters, to peform five steps to install spyware software on thier pc.   In this case, the user would be asked to perform three(3) separate steps in order to install this software:

then

then

then provide a phone number:

then perform another step:

If someone does all of the above accidently, they should be reminded how to buckle their belts on every airliner they board, and they indeed do not deserve a berry.

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