BlackBerry Upgrade Enables Surveillance

2009-07-22

Etisalat's latest BlackBerry patch designed to give UAE operators the ability to read its customers emails and text messages.

George Bevir, itp.net, is reporting that the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation Etisalat sent 100,000 BlackBerry subscribers an update patch to "provide the best BlackBerry service and ultimate experience" but those who downloaded the software complained of dramatically reduced battery life and slower than usual performance of their devices.

BlackBerry users on the Estisalat network in the United Arab Emirates received this message:

"Etisalat network upgrade for BlackBerry service. Please download to ensure continuous service quality."

A Doha-based Sun-certified Java programmer, Nigel Gourlay, analyzed the patch and said that once installed, it could give Etisalat the power to view all emails and text messages sent from the BlackBerry. The reduced battery life is said to be caused by the upgrade registering with a central server which couldn't handle all the traffic, causing repeated attempts to connect while draining the battery.

Etisalat released a statement apologizing for the "phased software upgrade..that lead to extra consumption of the handset battery" and described the patch as a "routine upgrade process".

Etisalat has avoided questions about the patch and its relationship with SS8, a technology provider that specializes in providing surveillance solutions to government organizations. Gourlay states,"The interesting thing is that no one would have known about it if they'd set up the registration server correctly. The whole thing wouldn't have been reported apart from the battery drain. I think that this whole system has been designed for law enforcement agencies to be deployed on a few dozen suspects' BlackBerry devices."

The full article is available on itp.net.