Hey Canada, NSA is listening to your Blackberries!
SPIEGEL has learned from internal NSA documents that the US intelligence agency has the capability of tapping user data from the iPhone, devices using Android as well as BlackBerry, a system previously believed to be highly secure.
Previously we knew that Android and Apple products tracked their users locations, phoning home back to the big Google and Apple servers with that data regularly. Apple updated about every ten minutes and uploaded to the servers several times a day. One of the reasons iPhones are data-hogs. NSA of course has access to all that data because they record EVERYTHING, but according to Der Spiegel they can also just hack and crack your phone.
And your Blackberry!
The documents suggest the intelligence specialists have also had similar success in hacking into BlackBerrys. A 2009 NSA document states that it can "see and read SMS traffic." It also notes there was a period in 2009 when the NSA was temporarily unable to access BlackBerry devices. After the Canadian company acquired another firm the same year, it changed the way in compresses its data. But in March 2010, the department responsible at Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency declared in a top secret document it had regained access to BlackBerry data and celebrated with the word, "champagne!"
The documents also state that the NSA has succeeded in accessing the BlackBerry mail system, which is known to be very secure. This could mark a huge setback for the company, which has always claimed that its mail system is uncrackable.
Just goes to show, nothing is uncrackable if you throw enough cubic yards of money at it.
All I know is, I want a gig selling hardware to the poindexters at NSA. The commission would be... epic! I could buy a small country!
The Phantom
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