A Russian company named Elcomsoft, Which has developed effective software for cracking passwords for the most common encryption formats for PC and has also released a tool to recover backups from the PC iPhone has managed to crack the Blackberry backup system . While the data traveling to and from the Blackberry server in a hitherto safe, regular backups BlackBerry devices stored in a computer are vulnerable to attack password recovery . Phone with Elcomsoft Password Breaker , you can crack a BlackBerry backup file of seven characters in about half an hour, using a machine with an Intel Core i7.
Vladimir explains Katalov of Elcomsoft , the reason for this lack of security is because unlike Apple , which uses 2.000 iterations of a function called "standard key- derivation "in their backups iOS 3.x with AES encryption (and 10.000 iterations iOS 4.x) , RIM uses only a single iteration . Additionally , the devices the company apparently transferred data to and from the BlackBerry Desktop Software without any encryption , further increasing the security risk .
Should we worry about this? . How can people with malicious intent to exploit this vulnerability ? . The Phone Password Breaker Software sold for $ 79 for the home edition version and $ 199 for the professional version . Could serve if you need to retrieve data from a stolen phone and deleted remotely. But cyber criminals to obtain your backup and have a way to read the data. Additionally , government agencies have good reason to read your data.
This development falls like a bucket of cold water to RIM at a time which is under scrutiny in seven countries by computer systems that are considered very safe by some governments , such as India and the United Arab Emirates. These two specific countries want better access for intervention to the telephone lines of communications made through BlackBerry devices , arguing that criminals and terrorists are using them because the authorities can not effectively spy .
