[thetechieguy]

I was fortunate to sit with Nader Henein in South Africa and chat to him about BlackBerry Security.
Mr. Nader Henein is BlackBerry� Regional Director of Advance Security Solutions - Advisory Division. Despite the very unfortunate acronym of his dpartment name, Nadar shared some insights into BlackBerry and their approach to corporate security: here is what Nadar has to say

[Andy_bb_king]

Thanks for sharing ! It explains security in simple terms. The "Time Bomb" is certainly hilarious !

Posted via CB10

[bhrgvr]

Wow... good stuff...

Posted via CB10

[Blackberryblade]

Great article. I can't wait to go back to blackberry. Fall 2014 can't come fast enough for me.

Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!

[thetechieguy]

Thanks for positive comments!

[eldricho]

Awesome article!

Posted via CB10

[MobileZen]

Great read. Thanks!

Posted via CB10

[Plazmic Flame]

So he's in charge of *** at BlackBerry.....?

Seems legit.

[parapep10]

Great article and nice find. Thanks

Posted via CB10

[BB10user07]

None does mobile security like BBRY.

Posted via CB10

[Alain_A]

good....it says that the stolen device will be erasing itself after a certain period of time.....let say 2 days if no activity....then it gives 2 days windows to steal info from inside......?

[MADBRADNYC]

Wow! Just, Wow!

[tchocky77]

Great piece! Appreciate ya sharing it.


Sent from my iPad using CB Forums

[thetechieguy]

by his own words "someone probably didn't realize the acronym and were in a hurry to get something out"... classic !

[Prem WatsApp]

Good stuff, but this needs to get out more.

"No Q10?" -> "Buy from Chen... "

[jamescpage]

This may be a silly question, but is there a difference in the security between enterprise users and the typical consumer? All BlackBerry phones are encrypted, but business also have monitoring software, is that right?

Q10

[Troy Tiscareno]

This may be a silly question, but is there a difference in the security between enterprise users and the typical consumer? All BlackBerry phones are encrypted, but business also have monitoring software, is that right?

Not right.

Most of BB's "security" comes when a BB phone is on BES. BES means fairly secure encrypted BBM, corporate emails (provided they are internal emails that never leave that corporate server), and potentially some company-specific corporate apps. It also encrypts the "work" portion of the phone's storage (flash memory), so it can't be read by people plugging it into a computer via USB. Phone calls, SMS/MMS, and any apps you download are not encrypted, or in the case of apps that might have their own encryption, aren't further encrypted by BES.

On a non-BES BB phone, BBM is only "scrambled" (i.e., not considered "secure" even by BB), and email and other apps have whatever encryption they normally have on any platform, if any. Other than the fact that BB10 is relatively rare and has some degree of "security through obscurity", a non-BES BB10 phone is not really any more secure than any other modern smartphone OS.

BTW, all modern smartphones can have their storage encrypted - this can be enabled by the user, and again it prevents someone who gained physical possession of the phone from reading the contents via USB. It also requires a long, complex password to unlock the phone (no PINs, no face-unlock, no pattern or puzzle unlock), which annoys most people and is likely what prevents a lot of people from using the feature.

[Sith_Apprentice]

Some of these answers are the company line, where he doesnt go into any additional information. Some are not and give a bit more than usual. Having sat down with Scott Totzke several times, I can say, the security directors are all very very smart.

[Sith_Apprentice]

Not right.

Most of BB's "security" comes when a BB phone is on BES. BES means fairly secure encrypted BBM, corporate emails (provided they are internal emails that never leave that corporate server), and potentially some company-specific corporate apps. It also encrypts the "work" portion of the phone's storage (flash memory), so it can't be read by people plugging it into a computer via USB. Phone calls, SMS/MMS, and any apps you download are not encrypted, or in the case of apps that might have their own encryption, aren't further encrypted by BES.

On a non-BES BB phone, BBM is only "scrambled" (i.e., not considered "secure" even by BB), and email and other apps have whatever encryption they normally have on any platform, if any. Other than the fact that BB10 is relatively rare and has some degree of "security through obscurity", a non-BES BB10 phone is not really any more secure than any other modern smartphone OS.

BTW, all modern smartphones can have their storage encrypted - this can be enabled by the user, and again it prevents someone who gained physical possession of the phone from reading the contents via USB. It also requires a long, complex password to unlock the phone (no PINs, no face-unlock, no pattern or puzzle unlock), which annoys most people and is likely what prevents a lot of people from using the feature.

One major correction, BBM is NOT any more encrypted on BB10 on work than personal. BBM is considered a PERSONAL application. You can move it to work space only, but it uses the global encryption keys of all other BBM users. Do NOT consider this encrypted. The new eBBM suite will allow this to be encrypted on the server level (like it used to be) for users within the company.

Also, there is security built into the personal side, but it is not nearly as robust as BES. Users can still encrypt their data at rest, media cards, etc. But that is about the sum of it.

[Witzend]

They should reprint the article in the Wall Street Journal(full page)

[Witzend]

Would some one post this on stockhouse bullboards. MUCH APPRECIATED T.BB

[dpeters11]

The time bomb isn't anything new really, is it? At least there's been a BES policy to wipe if the device hasn't been unlocked in a specified number of hours since BES 4 SP6.

[Bla1ze]

The time bomb isn't anything new really, is it? At least there's been a BES policy to wipe if the device hasn't been unlocked in a specified number of hours since BES 4 SP6.

None of it's really new........ well, except the shots fired at WhatsApp. Still a good read though.