Encrypted photos on BB from someone who passed away

Hi there,

I know Blackberry is the most secure mobile platform in the world. Unfortunately this can also be to our detriment. A friend's family member died in a car accident this week. They cannot access her Blackberry, because she had a password on it. She also encrypted her media card. If they enter the password incorrectly, the device will be wiped and they will never be able to access the photos (all with the extension jpg.rem) as I understand the encryption is device specific. It is also not possible to transfer the media card to another device. I told him to contact Blackberry and to hope that they can help. I find it really sad that this family cannot see the last pictures that was taken of her :-(

i doubt anything can be done. IF something can be done to extract those data/pictures, it means security has been breached.

I am sorry to hear that about your friends family member. Unfortunately nothing can be done if the files on the BlackBerry are still encrypted, not even RIM/BlackBerry can do anything. I have heard of a few people though who even after decrypting their files still had the .rem extension on the end of media files. You could try inserting the media card into a computer, copying a file over, and try removing the .rem extension from the file, and then try opening it with a photo viewer. If that doesn't work, then that means the files are still encrypted, and nothing can be done.

She encypted her files for a reason. Family or not, alive or not, those are things she wanted sole access to. In any event, encrypted is encypted. It's not like we're trying to break a wep key.

Sorry for your loss,

If there is a backup of the blackberry in question, you could crack it open with this software: Password recovery, forensic, forensics, system and security software from ElcomSoft : recover or reset lost or forgotten password, remove protection, unlock system

It's a Russian company that specializes in forensic software...