BlackBerry Users in United Arab Emirates Installed Update Containing Spyware
Research In Motion is warning that its carrier in the United Arab Emirates offered BlackBerry users an update that contained spyware.
The update was offered by Emirates Telecommunications Co., also known as Etisalat, which is 60 percent owned by the UAE government, the Wall Street Journal reports. Users who installed the new software complained that it drained their BlackBerrys’ batteries and made it more difficult to send e-mail.
RIM said the update was apparently developed by a company that develops spyware for law enforcement called SS8 Networks. Daniel Hoffman, chief technology officer for security products maker SMobile Systems Inc., told the Wall Street Journal that the update was designed to inteercept e-mail traffic send e-mail data to two e-mail addresses at Etisalat.
RIM is offering a new update designed to remove the spyware, IDG News Service reports.
“RIM did not develop this software application and RIM was not involved in any way in the testing, promotion or distribution of this software application,” the company said in a statement published in the Wall Street Journal.
