Private messages exchanged using corporate BlackBerry wireless devices may not be quite so private after all. In fact, even the so-called PIN messages that many users thought were untraceable can be logged.
The lack of BlackBerry privacy became clear in a lawsuit filed in Toronto recently by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). The bank submitted scores of BlackBerry e-mails and PIN messages as evidence that several former executives took confidential information from the company and tried to recruit others while they were still employees of the bank.
The messages that were submitted as evidence included ones sent between BlackBerries using the devices’ personal identification numbers (PIN).
That form of BlackBerry communication has been considered by many users to be more private than sending messages between e-mail addresses, because PIN messages are sent directly from one device to another. Standard BlackBerry e-mail is routed via an enterprise server and can be logged and archived like other e-mail messages.
Unexpected Gap
The fact that CIBC logged such messages is bound to surprise many people, said Thomas Smith, a director of the International BlackBerry User Group in Mountain View, Calif.
But that’s a mistake, said Rob Moffat, president of Wallace Wireless Inc., an Amherst, N.Y.-based vendor of software for BlackBerry devices. “There is some misunderstanding about the ability to archive such messages,” he said.
The reality is that such messages can indeed be logged, said Moffat, whose company sells software that, among other things, can be used to capture BlackBerry PIN communications. The function is increasingly being used by financial services firms and government agencies, he said.
The news should come as no surprise to security professionals, said Pete Lindstrom, an analyst at Malvern, Pa.-based Spire Consulting LLC. “Most people think of peer-to-peer communications as a person-to-person thing,” he said. “But somewhere in between, there’s almost always a server.
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