The Canadian Government has warned its workers in a recent memo. Postmedia News obtained the memo under Canada's freedom of information law. Most people believe that BlackBerry is completely secure, but according to the memo BlackBerry is still vulnerable.
The memo warns that although messages are encrypted, the key that is used in the encryption is available on all BlackBerrys, and therefore any BlackBerry could potentially decrypt the message.
The vulnerability makes the BlackBerry open to malware that could potentially expose secrets.
Is this a big deal? Probably not. Anyone who doesn't already know that messaging services can be hacked, whether encrypted or not, is not being realistic.
The memo warns that although messages are encrypted, the key that is used in the encryption is available on all BlackBerrys, and therefore any BlackBerry could potentially decrypt the message.
"Although PIN-to-PIN messages are encrypted, they key used is a global cryptographic 'key' that is common to every BlackBerry device all over the world. Any BlackBerry device can potentially decrypt all PIN-to-PIN messages sent by any other BlackBerry device," the memo stated.
The vulnerability makes the BlackBerry open to malware that could potentially expose secrets.
"PIN-to-PIN messaging bypasses all corporate email security filters, and thus users may become vulnerable to viruses and malware code as well as spam messages if their PIN becomes known to unauthorized third parties," it said.
Is this a big deal? Probably not. Anyone who doesn't already know that messaging services can be hacked, whether encrypted or not, is not being realistic.