Etisalat, a mobile phone operator in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), issued a software update last week to its 150,000 BlackBerry users. The update, purportedly from BlackBerry, was intended to solve a problem with the transition from 2G to 3G networks, claimed Etisalat. The software update, however, which was installed by a large number of Etisalat’s BlackBerry customers was soon discovered to make the devices virtually unusable due to a significantly reduced battery life. When the problem was investigated it was found that the software was not an official update from BlackBerry at all, but a piece of spyware developed by US surveillance company SS8.
SS8 claims it is one of the world’s leading companies developing “communication intercepts” and “surveillance solutions”. The Silicon-Valley based company is known for making intrusive applications to infringe on personal privacy and there has been concern over why Etisalat would be pushing this insidious software onto their customers. What’s more worrying, for people in the UAE at least, is that Etisalat is a state owned company and could be an indication of the UAE government trying to implement autocratic surveillance policies by closely monitoring the communications of their citizens.
The ‘performance enhancing’ update was claimed by Etisalat to be an official BlackBerry patch, although BlackBerry manufacturers Research in Motion (RIM) have denounced the software claiming they had nothing to do with either its development or distribution and in no way encourage their customers to install that patch. RIM have made a removal application freely available on their website after concerns that the initial Etisalat removal instructions didn’t remove the spyware at all, raising even more concerns. This incident of domestic surveillance might never have come to light were it not for the fact that the SS8 software was so badly written it caused the BlackBerry devices to become unusable.
Tags: BlackBerry