[conite]

Oh come on, man. What the hell is BlackBerry "hardened" Android?

"Supply chain security for hardware root of trust. That means we “sign” all of our hardware with digital keys at the manufacturing level to ensure device integrity.

Improvements to the Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) security technique and make it far more difficult for malware – even something like Stagefright – to exploit Android software bugs.

Improvements to the SELinux mandatory access control policy system.

The Pathtrust utility ensures that untrusted code cannot be introduced into the system dynamically via malware.

Hundreds of hardening improvements to the Linux kernel and Android service framework to enable features like DTEK, our app that helps you protect your own security and privacy.

Tamper-proofing of critical security parameters.

Cryptographic improvements, including the use of BlackBerry Certicom certified-FIPS 140-2 security compliant cryptographic library and other techniques that improve upon the Android password’s protection against brute-force attacks.

Smart card development framework and other enterprise-specific features that benefit business users.

BlackBerry Integrity Detection

BlackBerry Android comes with built-in BlackBerry Integrity Detection, which continuously monitors for events or configuration changes that could compromise the security of the device. This includes:

Checking the integrity of the kernel on device bootup

Checking for unauthorized changes to the SELinux policy

Monitoring file system mounting permissions

Ensuring that unauthorized apps don’t acquire escalated privileges

Disabling security sensitive applications such as pathtrust."

[stlabrat]

Oh come on, man. What the hell is BlackBerry "hardened" Android?

BB is not on the "do not use" list and it is supported by ATT carrier. https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/14/1...ce-chief-fears

[PantherBlitz]

Back on topic - remember these guys?

https://9to5google.com/2018/02/12/es...sales-numbers/

Must be due to a lack of marketing.

[howarmat]

Back on topic - remember these guys?

https://9to5google.com/2018/02/12/es...sales-numbers/

Must be due to a lack of marketing.

i will agree essential lacked exposure. its a nice phone maybe a bit high price though.

Google does market their phones and they still didnt sell a ton. They make good phones too that are top of the line and get the fastest updates.

This just shows you how hard it is for people like BB/TCL. Even with good to great marketing its still hard to sell phones in the world today.

[glwerry]

Dude you are deflecting. It's not everywhere but it's not unreasonable to expect the K1 or Motion to have been updated at this point. Sony was dropping devices with Oreo last September. That's almost 6 months ago. There's no excuse for BlackBerry, a self proclaimed software company.

Yes, BB is a software company - however, this particular issue is a bit different in that the Android operating system IS NOT THEIR SOFTWARE.

[bb10adopter111]

Oh come on, man. What the hell is BlackBerry "hardened" Android?

Do you mean their promise of security updates? Because you can take a look at this forum and see that nobody gets them on time or even with any sense of regularity.

We're approaching March 2018 and none of their devices have been updated to 8.0 and no timeline set.

The Android Hub is great and nothing else exists like it, but it's available to all Android devices. I love it on my P10 Plus that I manually updated to Android 8.0. Such options do not exist on BB Android. So tell me again what the hell is the reason to use a BlackBerry besides the hope of a decent PKB?

This is pretty well documented. Android comes with hundreds of optional configuration settings. BlackBerry locks down non-essential settings more aggressively than most, if not all, other OEMs.

It's the equivalent of having a locksmith come to a new house and upgrade security on all doors and windows, including putting bars on the ground floor windows.

Posted with my trusty Z10

[Bla1ze]

Faster releases does make for troublesome user experience.

Case in point, Samsung has halted their rollout of Oreo and Essential's builds were so problematic on 8.0 they're going to 8.1.

https://www.androidcentral.com/samsu...-version-works
https://www.androidcentral.com/essen...ability-issues // https://twitter.com/essential/status/963851778721640448

And there's still new devices being launched with Nougat.

https://www.androidcentral.com/xiaom...te-5-pro-specs
https://www.androidcentral.com/xiaomi-redmi-note-5-pro

[IndianTiwari]

Oh come on, man. What the hell is BlackBerry "hardened" Android?

Do you mean their promise of security updates? Because you can take a look at this forum and see that nobody gets them on time or even with any sense of regularity.

We're approaching March 2018 and none of their devices have been updated to 8.0 and no timeline set.

The Android Hub is great and nothing else exists like it, but it's available to all Android devices. I love it on my P10 Plus that I manually updated to Android 8.0. Such options do not exist on BB Android. So tell me again what the hell is the reason to use a BlackBerry besides the hope of a decent PKB?

The reason for me to use Blackberry devices is unparalleled productivity and performance of PKB and VKB devices coupled with excellent battery life. As regards Android 8.0 it has been discussed at length about Oreo coming sometime in late March or April 2018.

[Sigewif]

Dude you are deflecting. It's not everywhere but it's not unreasonable to expect the K1 or Motion to have been updated at this point. Sony was dropping devices with Oreo last September. That's almost 6 months ago. There's no excuse for BlackBerry, a self proclaimed software company.

See the article below. Just maybe there is a reason for BlackBerry's delay. As for me I'd rather have Nougat than get Oreo before the kinks have been gotten out of it.
http://bgr.com/2018/02/14/galaxy-s8-...-download/amp/

[hlg8888]

I used to have a Google Nexus 7 tablet built by Asus. It had received rave reviews in terms of price/quality. But not long after it started to suffer from hardware problems (severe slowdown in performance after software upgrades) until at some point the device wouldn't go past the startup screen. Basically it turns out that Google in setting the production parameters had forced Asus to use cheap memory chips from Hynix. However, when asking for some clarification by Google, you're left on your own as Google refers you to the retailer you bought it from. Had I bought it directly from Google then they would have felt obliged to react. That did it for me, I can be suckered once but not twice. Never a Google product again if I can avoid it. I believe their hardware experiments are all ways to hide the actual profit Google is making from its search engine. I'd do the $ame.

Posted via CB10

[stlabrat]

Back on topic - remember these guys?

https://9to5google.com/2018/02/12/es...sales-numbers/

Must be due to a lack of marketing.

or lack of MFG generated "fake review" like those more than 100 on BestBuy for an un-launched M10.

[Carjackd]

Don't confuse the suite (which is available to all, and therefore is not a differentiator), with a BlackBerry Mobile device running hardened BlackBerry Android.

It hard to believe after all this time that people do confuse this

[G_Unit MVP]

It hard to believe after all this time that people do confuse this

It's normal, cause there are no visual differences between Android on any device and Android on a Blackberry. And since most of the people don't even know that Blackberry "still exists" much less they will know those details. Not to mention that there is not much people interested in "hardened" Android... they just want a phone...

[stlabrat]

I used to have a Google Nexus 7 tablet built by Asus. It had received rave reviews in terms of price/quality. But not long after it started to suffer from hardware problems (severe slowdown in performance after software upgrades) until at some point the device wouldn't go past the startup screen. Basically it turns out that Google in setting the production parameters had forced Asus to use cheap memory chips from Hynix. However, when asking for some clarification by Google, you're left on your own as Google refers you to the retailer you bought it from. Had I bought it directly from Google then they would have felt obliged to react. That did it for me, I can be suckered once but not twice. Never a Google product again if I can avoid it. I believe their hardware experiments are all ways to hide the actual profit Google is making from its search engine. I'd do the $ame.

Posted via CB10

if your unit not yet "brick", try this (from android police forum): "fonzie
I think the cause is in one of the developer options settings - "enable view attribute inspection" - which is enabled by default. Just uncheck the setting. My Nexus 7 (2012 mobile) is much smoother now. Give it a try!"

[G_Unit MVP]

Case in point, Samsung has halted their rollout of Oreo and Essential's builds were so problematic on 8.0 they're going to 8.1.

https://www.androidcentral.com/samsu...-version-works
https://www.androidcentral.com/essen...ability-issues // https://twitter.com/essential/status/963851778721640448

And there's still new devices being launched with Nougat.

https://www.androidcentral.com/xiaom...te-5-pro-specs
https://www.androidcentral.com/xiaomi-redmi-note-5-pro

All of this makes me wonder if it wouldn't be smarter from Google to extend the life a their major OS versions. What's the point of launching a new version of Android every year if the manufacturers can catch up and they are all a couple versions behind. Not to mention the problems linked here...

.... and the frustration to us Blackberry users

[Bla1ze]

All of this makes me wonder if it wouldn't be smarter from Google to extend the life a their major OS versions. What's the point of launching a new version of Android every year if the manufacturers can catch up and they are all a couple versions behind. Not to mention the problems linked here.

I mean, the talk of Android P has already begun and most don't even have Oreo yet, so I certainly don't disagree. It's an ongoing cycle. But at the same time, I don't wanna say slow down either, because I like new stuff. lol

[G_Unit MVP]

I mean, the talk of Android P has already begun and most don't even have Oreo yet, so I certainly don't disagree. It's an ongoing cycle. But at the same time, I don't wanna say slow down either, because I like new stuff. lol

Yeah, but they are burning letters so fast.... most of us just saw the new versions on youtube, never in real life on a device.

[Carjackd]

It's normal, cause there are no visual differences between Android on any device and Android on a Blackberry. And since most of the people don't even know that Blackberry "still exists" much less they will know those details. Not to mention that there is not much people interested in "hardened" Android... they just want a phone...

I'm just referring to around here and in this community. I get it in the real world

[RLeeSimon]

Don't confuse the suite (which is available to all, and therefore is not a differentiator), with a BlackBerry Mobile device running hardened BlackBerry Android.

What precisely is "hardened" other than resistant to rooting ?

[conite]

What precisely is "hardened" other than resistant to rooting ?

"Supply chain security for hardware root of trust. That means we “sign” all of our hardware with digital keys at the manufacturing level to ensure device integrity.

Improvements to the Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) security technique and make it far more difficult for malware – even something like Stagefright – to exploit Android software bugs.

Improvements to the SELinux mandatory access control policy system.

The Pathtrust utility ensures that untrusted code cannot be introduced into the system dynamically via malware.

Hundreds of hardening improvements to the Linux kernel and Android service framework to enable features like DTEK, our app that helps you protect your own security and privacy.

Tamper-proofing of critical security parameters.

Cryptographic improvements, including the use of BlackBerry Certicom certified-FIPS 140-2 security compliant cryptographic library and other techniques that improve upon the Android password’s protection against brute-force attacks.

Smart card development framework and other enterprise-specific features that benefit business users.

BlackBerry Integrity Detection

BlackBerry Android comes with built-in BlackBerry Integrity Detection, which continuously monitors for events or configuration changes that could compromise the security of the device. This includes:

Checking the integrity of the kernel on device bootup

Checking for unauthorized changes to the SELinux policy

Monitoring file system mounting permissions

Ensuring that unauthorized apps don’t acquire escalated privileges

Disabling security sensitive applications such as pathtrust."

[RLeeSimon]

Thanks for all that. I must say I don't have background to understand most of it. If the security is so great, in this age of cybersecurity awareness, how come they don't sell like hotcakes?

[conite]

Thanks for all that. I must say I don't have background to understand most of it. If the security is so great, in this age of cybersecurity awareness, how come they don't sell like hotcakes?

Because most people truly don't care about it.

[bb10adopter111]

^^ This. The people who do care about it are Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and Boards of Directors for large enterprises, and regulated enterprises of all sizes including governments.

It's a sad truth that the average consumer can't be trusted to protect their employers' sensitive information.

But the fact that individual consumers don't care misses the point that it's a huge problem for business integrity and competitiveness. If you want a decent snapshot of the problem, read the the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR).

The typical cybersecurity breech is perpetrated by outsiders (75%) who gain entry to sensitive information via stolen or weak passwords (81%) combined with malware (51%). Most malware is injected via email attachments (66%). Most hacking is financially motivated (73%) or espionage (21%).

Two-thirds of victims are either financial organizations (24%), healthcare organizations (15%), public sector entities (12%) or retail and accommodation businesses (15%).

These days, Android has a robust security model, but most Android devices are notoriously easy to compromise because OEMs do a terrible job of implementing all of the available security measures. Blackberry is among the few OEMs who systematically lock down anything that isn't needed to operate the phone, including rootability. (Samsung takes a slightly different approach, and allows rootability, but, once rooted, the phone is flagged and can never connect to Android Knox, even if it's later restored to stock.)

The main way that CISOs protect their organizations from mobile-based threats is by 1) restricting mobile access to sensitive information as much as possible; and 2) establishing policies, including lists of approved devices, to ensure compliance with their security model.

[co4nd]

Google is good at building phones but terrible at selling them:

https://search.app.goo.gl/VUUd

I guess the answer to the question in the subject line of this post is 'by providing and unique software experience'

That doesn't mean that we bring BB10 to Android. It means that on top of sticking to PKB (seems like we are already headed in that direction!) the Suite becomes more complete:

1. Make Hub an SMS client
2. Create a BlackBerry dialer with VM integration into Hub

I can go on and on, you guys get the point!

Google doesn't need to sell phones to make money, the Pixels are mearly a hobby to them

[RK_BB]

Google doesn't need to sell phones to make money, the Pixels are mearly a hobby to them

Obviously.

The point of the post is to show that even Google struggle to move a significant volume supported by the sheer size and name recognition they have and therefore in order for a company like BlackBerry to move a significant volume they need to be unique in more ways than selling a PKB device supported by their name and recognition that we all know is somewhat lost at this point.