The voice of the BlackBerry community.
The Indian Government has recently been the victim of attempts by Chinese state-backed hackers to retrieve classified information from government officials, pushing their security agencies to rethink mobile policies. With BlackBerry being the device of choice for the public sector, it’s important that governments can trust the platform to protect their data in light of recent major cyber attacks.
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SMobile’s Global Threat Center (GTC) has released a research study on proof of concept malicious applications that could potentially infect the BlackBerry platform. The paper concludes that there are certain instances of attacks that may be successful in bypassing BlackBerry’s security framework, and poses a significant risk to the confidentiality of the user. Since SMobile Security is in the business of creating anti-virus protection for mobile, it’s obviously in their best interests to release a report exposing “significant risks”, but nonethless they may be on to something.
The report was created using a Proof-of-Concept malicious application that focuses specifically on a BlackBerry using the BIS network. These BlackBerrys run on a weakened security platform when compared to the BES, and are primarily protected using a permissions accepted or denied by the user. Some of the questions this report brings to mind are: is the increasing number of BIS subscribers, going to affect the overall security of the BlackBerry platform? What will a primarily BIS customer base do to the reputation of BlackBerry as the most secure platform? Are permissions enough to protect a user who is new to smartphones, and may not know the harm a malicious application can cause?
This was an interesting week for BlackBerry news. There was a ton of news I would file under WTF, including a BlackBerry getting God’s blessing, and the 9500 ending up in the Royal Collection. Of course the best news comes from Nan Palmero, BlackBerry Cool’s CES 2010 correspondent. He got some awesome footage of Xobni and LinkedIn for BlackBerry.
Hit the jump and catch up on a week of BlackBerry
With Verizon set to roll out its app store, you have to wonder about the fate of App World. I’m not positive about the exact numbers, but I’ve heard from people in the industry that Verizon customers make up a huge proportion, we’re talking 80-90% of App World’s user base. Verizon’s Ryan Hughes, VP Partner Management, said in an interview that the Verizon app store will be the sole marketplace on devices sold by the company, meaning there is no hope for App World ever coming preloaded.
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We first heard about Skype for BlackBerry back in March of 2009 when The New York Times reported that Skype “will make its free software available immediately for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch and, beginning in May, for various BlackBerry phones, made by Research in Motion.”
While we were led to believe that it was going to be available to all users, it was actually a closed beta of Skype Lite that was launched. Skype Lite features the core calling and IM features, while omitting features like file transferring and sending SMS messages.
So when will we see the app launch? Skype says to hold on. Their official blog states that they have “faced delays beyond [their] control” in moving its BlackBerry build out of private beta testing.
SmrtZodiac is a fun puzzle game by the folks who make SmrtGuard. The rules to the game are very simple, just match three in a row and score points. The above video shows you exactly how the game is played. If you’re a fan of the Tetris/Connect4 puzzle genre, this game is for you.
For 2 Days only, get SmrtZodiac at $1.99 (normally $4.99), that’s 60% off the regular price.
Bad Behavior has blocked 27586 access attempts in the last 7 days.