Mobile phones security and encryption - BlackBerry yuck!

Filed under:Technology — posted by Consultant on May 14, 2008 @ 8:17 am

Hey there,

I’ve been looking for a mobile device that will let me install gpg/pgp and send/receive encrypted e-mails from a mobile device to anywhere. While looking for such a thing I took a look at BlackBerry and the service they offer - I have someone close who uses such a device to send/receive e-mail including his gmail accounts.

That’s when I learned about the Blackberry Internet Service account. Which is what you need to create online in order to configure (online) your login information for the e-mail accounts that you want to access. Which means that you end up giving your password to BlackBerry so they check the e-mail for you and forward it to you.

I then found out that pgp.com does actually offer a PGP package that can be installed in a BlackBerry but it looks like it’s a very expensive solution (each license is about 250 usd and you need to buy a minimum of 10, not to mention you can’t simply install it a mobile device and go solo, you need to have an enterprise server solution installed somewhere) which means that you end up spending lots of money and integrating more PGP technology in your environment.

Instructions on how to configure your e-mail for your BlackBerry are here:

http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB04553

And the site for PGP blackberry support is right here:

http://www.pgp.com/products/pgp_support_package_for_bb/

So I would say forget about BlackBerry. I’m going to look at other mobile solutions, some include Windows Mobile meaning that I should be able to install GPG/FireGPG and workaround a way of using encrypted e-mails from there.

A friend of mind mentioned the HTC Dual touch (http://www.htc.com/UK/)

We’ll see what I find..

Cheers

3 comments »

  1. Have a look at Datalocking. They offer a hosted managed 4096 bit PGP (stongest available)encryption service for Blackberry. Packages start at $30/month if you are a company, otherwise its a Prepaid plan. more info jack@datalocking.com

    Comment by jack falkner — July 3, 2008 @ 12:44 pm

  2. We’ve released ‘Atomichelix PGP for BlackBerry’ (http://www.atomichelix.com/bbpgp/index.html) that does what you want — namely, is a stand-alone PGP solution for a BlackBerry device (OS 4.1+ required). There is a 15-day demo in the software, so you can install it and try it for free.

    We firmly believe at Atomichelix that all email should be sent securely, so even if you don’t use ours, please use something. :)

    Comment by Atomichelix — July 30, 2008 @ 10:25 pm

  3. Excellent, thanks for your comment! That sounds like great news, you have a big market to take a shot at there.

    -AV

    Comment by Consultant — July 31, 2008 @ 12:35 pm

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