25 July 2009

Is Your BlackBerry Spying on You?

Here's a story that is bound to unleash your inner conspiracy theorist.

The largest telecomm service provider in the United Arab Emirates', Etisalat, a month ago instructed its BlackBerry-wielding customers that they could upgrade their software with a patch it had developed that would improve performance.

Users started to install the patch, but they didn't discover any improvement. They did find, though, that their power was being drained more rapidly. So something new was happening. What could it be? The so-called patch was actually a file that lets Etisalat capture, read, and store the e-mails of the customers who have taken the bait.

The manufacturer of BlackBerry, Research in Motion, has confirmed thi, and has provided its customers in the UAE with instructions on how to remove the "Interceptor." I guess the world is saved.

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Knowledge is warranted belief -- it is the body of belief that we build up because, while living in this world, we've developed good reasons for believing it. What we know, then, is what works -- and it is, necessarily, what has worked for us, each of us individually, as a first approximation. For my other blog, on the struggles for control in the corporate suites, see www.proxypartisans.blogspot.com.