Is anything on my phone actually encrypted?

I was just looking at the thread about BIS, or the potential lack of with BB10, and it got me thinking...is anything actually fully private and encrypted? I know that's not the only function of BIS, but that's the one that always stuck out to me the most.

I know all BBM messages go through BIS and are encrypted, but what about all of my emails? I have a few Gmail accounts, but I can't imagine that those are, because they also sit in my Gmail inbox online. I don't use my blackberry.net email address, but even if I did, if I wasn't sending to someone else's blackberry.net email address, it would sit on a server somewhere.

If anyone could shed some light on this, I would appreciate it. Mostly, I just want to understand a bit more and make sure I have my facts straight.

Originally Posted by hoopitz

I was just looking at the thread about BIS, or the potential lack of with BB10, and it got me thinking...is anything actually fully private and encrypted? I know that's not the only function of BIS, but that's the one that always stuck out to me the most.

I know all BBM messages go through BIS and are encrypted, but what about all of my emails? I have a few Gmail accounts, but I can't imagine that those are, because they also sit in my Gmail inbox online. I don't use my blackberry.net email address, but even if I did, if I wasn't sending to someone else's blackberry.net email address, it would sit on a server somewhere.

If anyone could shed some light on this, I would appreciate it. Mostly, I just want to understand a bit more and make sure I have my facts straight.

Everything on your phone is encrypted if you turn encryption on lol.

Originally Posted by belfastdispatcher

Everything on your phone is encrypted if you turn encryption on lol.

But at the end of the day, having it encrypted on my phone is kind of pointless because, for example, a copy of every email that I send from my blackberry, from my Gmail account just sits, unencrypted on gmails server, right?

Originally Posted by hoopitz

But at the end of the day, having it encrypted on my phone is kind of pointless because, for example, a copy of every email that I send from my blackberry, from my Gmail account just sits, unencrypted on gmails server, right?

How is it pointless? Not everything on your phone is transmited, BB encryption encrypts everything, photos, contacts, videos, everything that is on your phone at any given time is encrypted. Not everything is about emails.

the point about emails still stand, though the title of this thread could have been different.


Sent from my BlackBerry 9810 using Tapatalk

IIRC, all data to and from your phone to BIS is encrypted, but once said data leaves BIS, it is no longer encrypted unless whatever you are doing supports it. For example sending an email from your phone, unless you encrypt the email, and gmail supports it, then yes your email is unencrypted once it leaves BIS to go to Google's servers. Or if you go to a website on your phone, it will go through BIS encrypted until it leaves BIS, then it is unencrypted. Now say you go to a secure website that uses SSL, you will see the lock on the web browser, this means that the data is encrypted from your phone to BIS, and then from BIS to the server and then all the way back again.

Originally Posted by blue_k

IIRC, all data to and from your phone to BIS is encrypted, but once said data leaves BIS, it is no longer encrypted unless whatever you are doing supports it. For example sending an email from your phone, unless you encrypt the email, and gmail supports it, then yes your email is unencrypted once it leaves BIS to go to Google's servers. Or if you go to a website on your phone, it will go through BIS encrypted until it leaves BIS, then it is unencrypted. Now say you go to a secure website that uses SSL, you will see the lock on the web browser, this means that the data is encrypted from your phone to BIS, and then from BIS to the server and then all the way back again.

The SSL means it's encrypted from end to end but does not need BIS for that. That also applies to Gmail as they have supported that for a couple of years now.

If you want to ensure that your BIS emails can only be read by the intended recipient, you'll need a third party tool. Search for something like “encrypt email BlackBerry” and filter out “bes” and “enterprise.” You'll be able to quickly see some options without many of the BES results. The web portal solutions may not meet your security/privacy requirements.

You'll also need to get recipients on board with whatever method you choose, and if they are non-technical users, support may become a nightmare.