1. jic999's Avatar
    They have confirmation that NSA intercepted messages from BES servers :
    From Spiegel: http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-940969-3.html

    A new report claims that the NSA intercepts laptops purchased online to install spyware and even hardware on them Report: NSA Intercepting Laptops Ordered Online, Installing Spyware - Forbes
    Forbes @Forbes

    Posted via CB10
    12-29-13 09:47 PM
  2. johnnyuk's Avatar
    Hmm I wonder if the BES in question was using 3DES encryption or the much harder to crack 256 bit AES encryption.

    My guess would be 3DES, a poor configuration choice.

    Posted via CB10 on Z10 STL100-2 on EE, UK - Activated on BES10.2
    12-29-13 10:43 PM
  3. jic999's Avatar
    http://www.technologyreview.com/news...curity-crisis/


    Certicom will prove to be an excellent investment for BlackBerry

    Posted via CB10
    12-30-13 02:51 AM
  4. glamrlama's Avatar
    The Spiegel article says nothing about BES servers.
    12-30-13 04:14 AM
  5. johnnyuk's Avatar
    The Spiegel article says nothing about BES servers.
    Yes it does, half way down the page:

    "Indeed, TAO specialists have directly accessed the protected networks of democratically elected leaders of countries. They infiltrated networks of European telecommunications companies and gained access to and read mails sent over Blackberry's BES email servers, which until then were believed to be securely encrypted. Achieving this last goal required a "sustained TAO operation," one document states."

    Posted via CB10 on Z10 STL100-2 on EE, UK - Activated on BES10.2
    12-30-13 10:52 AM
  6. Troy Tiscareno's Avatar
    We had this exact report months ago.
    12-30-13 12:37 PM
  7. johnnyuk's Avatar
    We had this exact report months ago.
    I remember a few months ago there was a report about GCHQ in the UK hacking a visiting Eurpoean politician's or diplomat's BlackBerry but it was actually his personal email account over BIS that they managed to crack.

    Was that the one you were thinking or is this US hack old news too?

    Posted via CB10 on Z10 STL100-2 on EE, UK - Activated on BES10.2
    Last edited by johnnyuk; 01-02-14 at 11:07 AM.
    12-30-13 05:58 PM
  8. Troy Tiscareno's Avatar
    ^ I believe that was the one, yes. This "latest report" is really just a rehash of the same story from a couple of months ago. The newsies are re-reporting it so they have something to talk about given the other NEW reports from Snowden this week.
    01-01-14 04:16 AM
  9. THBW's Avatar
    This story is a rehash of a rehash of a rehash. The initial report was that in 2011, NSA was able, under a highly rigged scenario to inception communications on older generation BlackBerry phones (pre 2009). I used the word rigged because the phone had to be specially designed to send out a tracing signature so that the NSA could follow it within BES. Once they could follow it, they could, at times, extract encrypted emails. Then with a huge amount of computing power they were able to partial decode some emails. Overall, the decoding approach was considered impractical and was rendered useless in subsequent generations of BBs with software updates. There is a reason world leaders are only allowed to use late generation BlackBerry phones.
    BlackBerry is not Apple where a backdoor has been baked into its source code. As to Android, it is basically impossible to secure to the level needed for world leaders. Just ask the German government how secure a Samsung phone is.


    Posted via CB10
    01-01-14 07:30 AM

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