[mrfreeze]

BBM is looking better and better everyday...

Source: CNET
Link: Viber sends video, images without encryption protection - CNET

Viber sends video, images without encryption protection
Researchers demonstrate that a widely used mobile chat app not only sends some kinds of data in the open, it also stores it publicly online.

The online chat app Viber sends video and images without encryption and stores it online afterward at a publicly available address, researchers have found.

Ibrahim Baggili and Jason Moore, researchers from the University of New Haven's Cyber Forensics Research & Education Group, demonstrated Viber's open transmission of the data Wednesday on a YouTube video. They found the data and links to its online location by intercepting traffic on a Windows 7 PC that was setup as a wireless access point for one of the mobile phones used in the test.

It's not trivial to get the data, but attackers can do so by setting up malicious wireless access points or who use man-in-the-middle attacks to intercept network traffic. In addition, Internet and mobile service providers and wireless access point operators have access to the data -- and anyone in intelligence services they share that data with, knowingly or not.

"The key here is to let the people know about these things so they can make an informed decision about using these applications until they are patched," Baggili, an assistant professor of computer science, told CNET on Thursday.

CNET contacted Viber for comment and will update this story with its response. Baggili said they contacted Viber through its support email address, but didn't hear back.

Baggili and Moore also found a related though narrower problem with WhatsApp, a Viber competitor that also offers a cheaper alternative to traditional text, picture, and video messaging. WhatsApp, which Facebook is acquiring for $19 billion, has 500 million monthly active users and is expanding into voice communications. The researchers found it was sending unencrypted map imagery, something that Viber also did.

The researchers also found that Viber stores the data publicly on its servers for at least a week.

"The data is stored on Viber's server in an unencrypted manner," one of the researchers said in the video. "There is also no authentication method used, so anybody who has access to these links can look at this data, retrieve this data, and do whatever they want with it."

[FOR RIM]

thnkyou for sharing this article i was gonna try viber now i am never gonna think about anything else than BBM

[Uzi]

hope people realise it and come back to BBM

Posted via CB10

[anon(6038817)]

I don't understand why BB users are so excited about it in the first place. What advantage does it have over BBM? Is it because of the desktop client?

[mrfreeze]

I don't understand why BB users are so excited about it in the first place. What advantage does it have over BBM? Is it because of the desktop client?

I think I am excited because it is one more widely used app to the list of "Supported" apps. Will I use it? No. But does it give BB a little bit more credibility? Very minimal, but heck I think we will take anything at this point. The more widely used apps the better, it just shows that things are slowly progressing and may entice other apps to follow suit.