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

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.

Comments

Beware of BlackBerry shills

[LichtSpektren]

BlackBerry has an intense cadre of Internet shills that likely will be defending them within about a day or two. Just watch.

For any sane person that cares about their privacy and safety, this should be the nail in the coffin for BB.

Re:Beware of BlackBerry shills

[drew_kime]

2. Law enforcement says "don't use Blackberry because we cracked it". Stress on the "don't use Blackberry" part ?

That's what seems odd to me. Why would police disclose that they're able to do this? Isn't this the kind of capability you'd want to keep under wraps? Almost seems like they want people to avoid BB. I wonder why.

Re:There's a reason...

[LichtSpektren]

PGP works great for Linux users. If I had to make a guess as to why it's not working so great for BB customers, I would just take a stab in the dark and say it's related to the fact that BB's CEO openly defends putting backdoors in phones and computers for "lawful access" by governments.

Key is forensics.

[Anonymous Coward]

They aren't cracking PGP. This came from the forensics department. By far the most likely scenario is that they're able to recover either the key from memory/flash, or the unencrypted plaintext.

Also, people still use Blackberrys?

Not necessarily

[nospam007]

Nobody said anything about 'cracking'.
They were able to 'read' the messages after hitting the user with a wrench to get the password.

I doubt it

[ooloorie]

They almost certainly can't "crack PGP"; they may, however, have found flaws in the way Blackberry uses PGP. Or perhaps they are simply referring to the fact that they can intercept data as it is being decrypted on the device.

Re:Military grade

[MightyYar]

Military grade just means it won't change for 30 years or so. :)