For those in the Tech Field .... With my blackberry, the IT people at my firm can obviously monitor my incoming and outgoing emails. But, with the Instant Messanger through Blackberry, does this also hold true? I don't know if the IM's actually go through the server or if they are just phone to phone.

JJ, specifically what kind of IM are you using on your blackberry?

(10-12-2009 11:32 AM)QSECOFR Wrote:  JJ, specifically what kind of IM are you using on your blackberry?

I am using the actual "Blackberry" IM version. Not the yahoo, or google.

Yes, your "conversations" can be monitored.

That's what I thought. Of course for the follow up. What if I set up an yahoo email address or a google email address and use their service like yahoo messenger or google talk. Can they still see that, if I am using the same phone? I've got nothing to hide, I just don't like the idea of a bored IT reading my 'messages' becuase they don't have enough work to fill their days.

Yes, they can -- even if the client is using SSL to encrypt the data stream. As long as your BES Server sits at a choke point, there are products out there will decrypt and save everything.

BTW, I hope everyone knows that SSL is VERY susceptible to a man-in-the-middle attack. I actually chuckle when I hear, "Oh, we're secure. We use SSL!"



(edited for the usual typos)

JJ,

The BlackBerry IMs go phone to phone and do not go through the BlackBerry servers. Whether they are monitored or not by your IT I can't remember. It's been many years since I participated in a BlackBerry launch, but I seem to remember that the BlackBerry IM could not be monitored. Unfortunately, I can't tell you why I think that. At the time, IM clients sent messages back and forth as text messages, and the BlackBerry IM's weren't.

Yeah, I'm having a hard time seeing how IM messages would be intercepted unless I'm really missing something. For a corporation to even see that traffic all of the IM messages would have to be "backhauled" to the corporate site and I don't see that functionality in RIM's description of the service. From what I can see the IM application uses the native Blackberry internet connection which would NOT flow through a corporate site. The corporate mail is a whole different story. It's been a while since I set up any Blackberry apps but I seem to remember they use a proxy that changes address way to often. Or maybe I'm confusing that with Palm? I know it played hell with 2 factor authentication.

What makes you think IT guys have all this time on their hands to read your email. Hell, I barely have time to post on multiple message boards like this all day and still get a little bit of work done in between.

If the blackberry is a corporate blackberry and encryption is turned on, which it is by default, the traffic is backhauled. If you are really worried about snooping, get a cheap phone with a minitues plan with text messaging. Then, only the NSA can snoop your conversations.

Yeah, it does look like your company could possibly be using the Blackberry Enterprise server which COULD provide some abomination of IM through Microsoft Exchange.

Still, I gotta wonder who's got time to sort through and read all the "OMG UR SO HOT LOL0101!!!" crap that I'm sure passes through there on a daily basis. Of course it's never a good idea to be sending your resume around using your corporate email either.

(10-13-2009 10:05 AM)Cat_Litter Wrote:  Yeah, it does look like your company could possibly be using the Blackberry Enterprise server which COULD provide some abomination of IM through Microsoft Exchange.

Still, I gotta wonder who's got time to sort through and read all the "OMG UR SO HOT LOL0101!!!" crap that I'm sure passes through there on a daily basis. Of course it's never a good idea to be sending your resume around using your corporate email either.

Due to Government Contracts, insider trading and other important topics which will bore you to death, all of my email gets stored and read, or if not read then scanned for important words or catch phrases. The IT group in my firm has time to read all of that becuase they are required to. I just got a new Blackberry and was asking "if" the IM could be stored as well. Not a knock on any idividual that works in IT.