Mobile World Cat

BlackBerry is quite safe from most of the attack and virus risks however a recent presentation in Kuala Lumpur, at the Hack in a Box conference mentions a different risk spyware, vector. Sheran Gunasekera, the head of the Research and Development at ZenConsult, explained at the presentation that the risk for

BlackBerry devices is the person using them. Installing these software's could open the door to dangers such as sending or forwarding your emails or messages to a hacker or hackers can view your private details or GPS coordinates.

The network carrier launched Etisalat 'registration' update, which was pointed out a few days back, is an ideal case in point. RIM offered a fix for this network carrier's update which allows the carrier spy on users BlackBerrys. This is type of like how all those attractive or smiley software's for Windows install spyware on your PC or computer. Imagine if the free game which you download has some secret code which copies your complete phone book when you are playing and passing on it to a mobile hacker.

In brief the seminar of the day is to be cautious of installing software of application from unfamiliar vendors. If you do you open yourself up to possible risks and compromise. You could also place default permission levels on your software's in order to restrict what software have access to and this is the clever thing to do.

According to the PC World, there is some bad news and some good for BlackBerry customers. There is no technical method or way of hacking a BlackBerry, says Sheran Gunasekera,

However that is no reason for BlackBerry customers to become unworried. If there is no problem in the gadget, there can be one in you. Therefore you can be an entry point for malware or virus introduction into the gadget, and then all the technical perfection becomes useless.

Beware of the social engineering attacks, says Mr. Sheran. Be wary when being provided cool slideshows or free applications for your gadget. They can be just a facade to introduce malicious application into it - software which can intercept phone calls, steal your data, or even listen to a real-world meeting or conversation.

A mobile hacker can be make international phone calls which can increase your monthly phone bill or can be reading your messages. The malicious software could be even set to take pictures in every 10 or 15 seconds and send them to the mobile hacker. As you see, there are many possibilities and all of them terrible.

Here is what Mr. Sheran advises (for BlackBerry and smartphone customers alike):

• Be cautious what software or application you are downloading or installing
• Do not give your gadget to other people to use or to strangers
• Set Default Application Permissions on your BlackBerry or smart phone
• Enable a password for the gadget.

He also advises to RIM (the company that produces BlackBerry gadgets) to regulate software designed for it, therefore people could be confident that what they download is genuine or lawful software.