BlackBerry may be on the rocks financially, but it had at least one thing going for it: Its commercial e-mail service was considered one of the most secure on the market. Foreign governments have on occasion threatened to ban BlackBerry services within their borders over the company’s heavily encrypted messaging functions, claiming that national security demanded the messages be made legible to law enforcement. The words “BlackBerry” and “uncrackable” often appear together.
Now, via Der Spiegel, we’ve learned that that security may have been compromised by the NSA. The agency can tap into the data on iPhones, Android devices and, yes, BlackBerrys, according to the German newsweekly. What surveillance has taken place on mobile phones has been mostly limited, targeting individual users. But the vulnerable information is wide-ranging and reportedly includes the content of text-messages, contact lists and location data.
BlackBerry data has been revealed to governments before. After Saudi Arabia warned it was going to cut off BlackBerrys under its jurisdiction, the device maker relented and installed a server there to allow the government to eavesdrop on communications. Before that, BlackBerry then known as RIM agreed to give India the encryption keys to its Blackberry Enterprise Services.
But those were cases in which BlackBerry willingly cooperated with authorities. From the Der Spiegel report, it now sounds as though, at least in some cases, the NSA has managed to access the private data of BlackBerry users without the manufacturer’s knowledge.
Read also:
NSA able to intercept BlackBerry e-mails: report (The Globe and Mail)
NSA can reportedly access secure BlackBerry email, 'tap' other smartphones (The Verge)
NSA can access BlackBerry, Android, iPhone data, report says (CBC.ca)
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