Some time ago I said a few things about Blackberry security and how people / governments / organizations try to break it.
The main theme behind was that if properly configured no 3rd party can get into blackberry messages (at least not from with in the network - email routed through the internet as well as SMS are obviously something else). Frustrating for governments in today’s environment security theater environment...
But of course there are ways around this, especially if the network providers and governments collude, and social engineering is used to trick the users:
Etisalat, the leading mobile phone service provider in den United Arab Emirates recently distributed a patch to about 145.000 of their customers which was supposed increase performance.
But after all customers experienced no performance increase but a run down of fully charged batteries within a hour, Nigel Gourlay, a programmer from Doha analysed the patch and found it to be the culprit: Using this "patch" the provider was able to log all messages sent out using the Blackberry. This trojan / spyware patch, written in cleartext Java, is supposed to be from SS8, a California based company claiming to be the market leader in electronic observation. And the battery did run out because the spyware on the blackberry tried to register with the control server but the server itself failed due to the sheer number of requesting handsets. So this application tried again and again to contact the server.
RIM (Research In Motion), the manufacturer of Blackberry, put out a statement confirming S88 involvement and provided an uninstall routine of this "Lawful Interception" application.
Etisalat-Manager Abdulla Hashim still claimed in an interview with the economic journal Arabian Business that the spyware patch was to increase the reception performance. No word from Etisalat that RIM and all other security researchers identified the patch as to what it actually was.
But the real punch line is: As a follow up to my prior post the Economic Times reported that software from SS8 was tested in India for their interception purposes but disregarded by the government due to the number of limitations and error-proneness.
Additional reading (in German):
http://www.heise.de/ct/Blackberry-Spyware-Reporter-ohne-Grenzen-verlangen-Aufklaerung--/news/meldung/143016
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