How did the RCMP crack BlackBerry's security?

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://ottawacitizen.com/technology/internet/how-did-the-rcmp-crack-blackberrys-security

By Vito Pilieci
ottawacitizen.com
June 12, 2014

BlackBerry Ltd. has long held that its BlackBerry devices are among the 
most secure in the world, but it turns out the platform isn’t as 
bulletproof as many had been led to believe.

On Thursday, Royal Canadian Mounted Police revealed the results of Project 
Clemenza, which it began in 2010. During the course of its investigation, 
the federal police force says, it intercepted more than a million private 
messages sent using BlackBerry’s PIN-to-PIN messaging, which led police to 
identify suspects in a series of violent crimes that included arson, 
forcible confinement and drug trafficking.

Personal Identification Number (PIN)-to-PIN messages are not the company’s 
popular BlackBerry Messenger service (BBM,) which the company still 
contends is ironclad when it comes to keeping messages secure. PIN-to-PIN 
allows BlackBerry users to send email directly to one another, keeping it 
from going out into the Internet where it could be spied on by prying 
eyes.

PIN-to-PIN messages are encrypted with what is known as Triple Data 
Encryption Standard (DES) encryption technology, which is among the best 
in the world. However, BlackBerry devices use what is known as a global 
cryptographic key to decode all of the messages sent to its devices. By 
faking, or “spoofing”, the PIN of the receiving BlackBerry device and 
utilizing the global cryptographic key, all messages sent to that device 
can be viewed by an eavesdropper.

[...]

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