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BlackBerry rejects hacked phone claim

Cape Town – Smartphone maker BlackBerry has rejected reports that its device security was compromised.

Reports have emerged that the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) had broken into BlackBerrys equipped with the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption programme.

Content such as deleted email could be recovered, dealing a potential blow to the company’s reputation for privacy.

However, on Thursday BlackBerry said that the breach was not related to security protocols.

“If such an information recovery did happen, access to this information from a BlackBerry device could be due to factors unrelated to how the BlackBerry device was designed, such as user consent, an insecure third party application, or deficient security behaviour of the user,” the company said on its official blog.

READ: Dutch police hack into 'uncrackable' BlackBerry

Reports indicate that the NFI recovery team had the device in their possession. BlackBerry said that the company has strict policies in dealing with personal information.

“There are no back-doors in any BlackBerry devices, and BlackBerry does not store and therefore cannot share BlackBerry device passwords with law enforcement or anyone else. In other words, provided that users follow recommended practices, BlackBerry devices remain as secure and private as they have always been.”

The Canadian company will shortly be launching its Priv smartphone which runs Google’s Android operating system in South Africa.

The company has collaborated with Android leader Samsung which allows BlackBerry Enterprise Server to provide enterprise level security for Samsung's Knox on Galaxy smartphones.


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