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Spyware In BlackBerry Updates For Users in the UAE
mulaz writes with this excerpt from The Register: "An update pushed out to BlackBerry users on the Etisalat network in the United Arab Emirates appears to contain remotely-triggered spyware that allows the interception of messages and emails, as well as crippling battery life. Sent out as a WAP Push message, the update installs a Java file that one curious customer decided to take a closer look at, only to discover an application intended to intercept both email and text messages, sending a copy to an Etisalat server without the user being aware of anything beyond a slightly excessive battery drain."
c'mon real time backup, can't beat that.
" as well as crippling battery life." is not the same as "a slightly excessive battery drain."
As far as non-north-american countries go - the UAE is very progressive. But a former client of mine who spent 8 yrs there working in administration pointed out - "in North America we are an odd country and culture - we simply take it as the norm that nobody will listen to us. That level of privacy is not the norm, it's unusual" He was in a senior healthcare position and essentially knew as a foreigner in a position of influence that he would be monitored regularly if not constantly.
slightly excessive battery drain
As a crackberry user myself, I can tell you that sometimes a change in battery life isn't even something I would worry much about. Considering the number of applications that many of us have on our 'berries, the number we have in the background at any given time, and the amount we use the applications in the foreground, a noticeable shift in battery life between Tuesday and Wednesday might not be considered abnormal. I know there are people who just charge every night religiously because they always want to start with a full battery in the morning; if they ended at 45% instead of 55% they might not think anything of it as long as their charge made it to the end of the day.
On the other hand if they normally end at 45% and now they don't make it through the day, they would likely notice that.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
-1, Flamebait
While there is a little bit of truth to this (having money and the ability to cross the country at a moment's notice helps your chances), it's mostly false. The organizations that manage organ transplants have some pretty strict standards about that sort of thing and do audits to look for preferential treatment. It basically boils down to "you can't buy your way to the front of the list".
But while you can't get yourself at the front of the list, what you CAN do is get yourself on multiple lists. Transplant lists are managed regionally, and so if you'd be able to make it to, say, Tennessee in time for your transplant (this is where money and a private jet come in handy), then you can go to Tennessee, get evaluated, and get yourself on the list for that region. And that is how you can game the system if you've got money and are Steve Jobs. But you still won't get yourself at the front of that list.
Why would the carrier need to route messages and data coming through their systems *back* to their systems to read them? They are, after all, the carrier of all this data in the first place. Why can't they just sniff around in it in the middle?
Something smells fishy.
Porquoi?
So I am paying for my bandwidth twice, first to receive the message and a second time for it to be forwarded to TPTB. Talk about being fsckd!
You say it as if its a bad thing.
That's because it is.
I, for one, would rather see Jobs get his liver than, say, some old person who worked as a machinist for 30 years, or even worse, an alcoholic native american.
Yeah, because the only choices were either him or the two extreme examples you've given. There are probably plenty of people on the list far more deserving than Jobs who got bumped down because they couldn't afford to buy their way to the top.
the register has a followup (including some code) here.
Apparently etisalat claims the spyware is for troubleshooting during the 2g to 3g upgrade.
The Register article stated:
It pointed to this link: http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/board/message?board.id=BlackBerryDeviceSoftware&thread.id=5504&view=by_date_ascending&page=2
But if you follow it you get:
Interesting.
Doug
I'm not very familiar with RIM's network architecture, so it wasn't clear to me whether the UAE needed RIM's help in distributing the spyware or whether it was entirely the doing of the local phone carrier in the UAE.
Would the UAE had to have had RIM's help or did they simply buy the services of the third-party spyware vendor?
-Sean
It's just a typo in the link, and for some reason the 404 page says "deleted" instead of just "not found". If you read the elreg comments page, you can find the corrected URL and the thread is still live:
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/board/message?board.id=BlackBerryDeviceSoftware&thread.id=5632&view=by_date_ascending&page=1
SS8 says their software is used by "some of the largest service providers in the world," so it may have been more surreptitiously pushed in phases by your own provider already.
Bum, bum, buuuuummmm.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Death Penalty, no we dont have it for any crime, this is the touchstone for the difference between civilised countries and others. Only uncivilised countries have the death penalty.
Socail security- You dont have a proper social security system compared with other countries.
Health Care-The US does not have universal health care but spends more than countries that do, quite an achievement.
The Gun- As much a religion to some in the US as the bible, we got rid of most of the guns in our society and we have no regrets.
YAnks just dont know what socialism is do they?
"No basic healthcare"? Sorry, fucktard, anyone who's sick can go to the ER and get treated. There is basic health care. "The gun and the bible". I understand that this whole "freedom of religion" thing pisses you off, as you'd like to force everyone to be an atheist. That's really fucking progressive. Perhaps you forgot the point of the gun. The gun is so that the government doesn't become like the European governments they left 250 years ago. So the government doesn't become like Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Russia. For an acid test, how about you get a Nazi flag, march up and down a sidewalk in the US, and then try the same thing in Germany.
By the way, I know how healthcare works in Europe. "Oh, you have insurance, come ahead now." Maybe Greece and Italy aren't part of Europe, but your universal healthcare seems to be a case of some pigs are more equal.
By the way, retards. I'm in the Emirates right now, and it's the most progressive country I've seen outside of North America, if by progressive you mean "progressing towards human rights." And yes, I've spent quite a while in quite a few european and African countries.
A good general rule of thumb is, If you dont want to be tracked or monitored, dony carry a cell phone, because at some point or another they ALL have ways of tracking you.
Good-bye
Maybe they/we need a crypto-twitter app?
Does something like this exist?
homosex is sinful, you dirty fucking sodomite.
So says "Reasoned Mind". Funny.
I can't believe my country would try something like this. For the love of god we are not Homeland or the FBI or even the CIA!!! My ISP have made a name for them self's as the biggest idiots I have ever known. I hope this will tech them a lesson."Performance enhancement patch"
What if I "earned" my money by winning the lottery? Insider trading? Other non-productive financial shenanigans? There are a lot of ways to get rich without providing anything of value, or even by making the world a worse place.
Yeah, I don't fault Jobs, I fault the system.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
1. Ask Madoff about that. I could only wish that Madoff had jumped to the front of the line to get a life saving treatment so that he could live as much of his 150 year sentence out. So...in these situations, just hope that karma gets them. That failing look to issue 2.
2. Life is unfair. Survival is a game where cheating to win is acceptable. The expectation of an equitable system is nonsense. This is why the whole judgment/afterlife business is so popular regardless of culture/religion. I make no claims to the existence or nonexistence of any judgment/afterlife or what it may be, but given that you really can't do anything about the inherent unfairness in the world the best you can do is try to get a warm fuzzy about thinking the horrible things that await assholes on the other side for being such douches on this side even if it is all just a fantasy.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
I'd rather see the machinist live.
Trackball users will be first against the wall.
You know, the market has been speculating that without Jobs, Apple will fall apart and the parade of cool products will grind to a halt. Like it did back in the 80s and 90s when Scully was president. In that regard, Jobs provides thousands of people with JOBS, income, health care, etc.
I bet you would be hard pressed to find another person on the list more deserving on that scale.
Forgetting that, supposing that he bought his way to the top of a transplant list, where do you think that money went? Some black market organ dealer? Or as a size able donation to a hospital that provides health care to thousands of people? I'm just speculating here based on the press release from the hospital, but if his money allowed him to benefit by providing ongoing benefits to many, many others...
I bet you would be hard pressed to find another person on the list more deserving on that scale.
These opinions guaranteed or your money back.
Now.. the President owns a Blackberry. Does he know about this? Foreigners could be spying on our President's texting. That would not be helpful in treaty negotiation.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Veracode has provided an analysis of the spyware source code. The spyware apparently is designed to encrypt messages it grabs from a BlackBerry before it sends them back to the server so that anyone intercepting the data en-route would not be able to read it.
Just open talk to cell phone discussion