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Police Say They Can Crack BlackBerry PGP Encrypted Email (sophos.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the proof-is-in-the-pgpudding dept.

schwit1 writes: Police in two countries have claimed that they can read encrypted data from BlackBerry devices that are being marketed as having "military-grade security." The story originally broke when Dutch website Misdaadnieuws (Crime News) published documents from the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI), a Dutch law enforcement agency, stating that police were able to access deleted messages and read encrypted emails on so-called BlackBerry PGP devices. A representative from NFI confirmed that "we are capable of obtaining encrypted data from BlackBerry PGP devices," according to a report from Motherboard. On Tuesday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) also told Motherboard they can crack encrypted messages on PGP BlackBerrys.

2 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Police say a lot of things by JoeyRox · · Score: 3, Informative

    Some of it to coerce citizen behavior, like convincing people that the encryption on their phone's isn't effective so that they wont use it.

  2. FUD: doesn't affect stock BlackBerry, only modded! by Prune · · Score: 3, Informative
    30 seconds of search showed what I expected: http://gizmodo.com/dutch-polic...

    break a series of encrypted emails held on Blackberrys modified by Canadian firm Phantom Secure

    Conclusion: (a) don't get phones modified by a shady third party with government connections, and (b) don't take Slashdot summaries at face value (but we never learn that one, do we)

    --
    "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."