I spoke with a developer in Motorola's Military Development arena (I don't have his contact info. or the actual name of the unit handy, but if you get picky on me, I could look it back up) about 6 months ago, and he advised that they were developing a cellular unit with 3des style (he didn't specify which algorithm they were actually using, but I got the impression it was as strong as, but not actually, 3des)encryption of voice and data transmissions between phones, and between internet portals or proxy servers, which has been pretty much unavailable up 'til now, and that they were going to be pretty much Military only for a while. I'm paraphrasing, and I probably am not remembering what he said very well, but if it's really important, and you grovel enough, I might be able to go back through my notes to get you his name and number, and a little more info......In the meantime, treat all of the above as suspect, as I regularly forget my name, my car keys, my wallet, etc......
Jeff Neithercutt CNA, GSEC Wells Fargo Bank Corporate Information Protection 155 5th Street MAC 0186-030 San Francisco, CA. 94103 (415)243-5549 -----Original Message----- From: John Karabaic [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2002 7:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Secure mobile unit? Blackberry's also allow for the creation of custom applications. If you're talking about the units from Motorola that I think you're talking about (the new Accompli line), those have a proprietary development environment which prohibits the development of apps which aren't provisioned by a wireless provider. Or is there a new unit coming out? Be aware that when you use PIN-to-PIN messaging, the key used for symmetric encryption is not secret. That's why RIM talks about those messages being "encoded" rather than "encrypted". Decoding them is trivial: the key is known to every RIM Blackberry device. Email using their email backbone is encrypted using Triple-DES and a key sharing scheme which has passed muster at a variety of very fussy organizations. But, as I asked in my previous message, we still don't know the threat profile. RIM Blackberry units are probably susceptible to electromagnetic eavesdropping (different than sniffing the DataTAC or Mobitex packets). I haven't really explored the internals, but I doubt they'd hold up to someone who has actually acquired the physical device and wants the data inside. What is the threat against which you define "secure"? >>>>> On Tue, 26 Mar 2002 16:55:10 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: neitherj> The Blackberry units from RIM technologies utilize neitherj> encryption schemes that are at least acceptable, and can neitherj> use either email or their built in pins for transit. neitherj> Very functional, not too pricey, and as secure as you neitherj> are gonna get until Motorola brings forth that which neitherj> they have been working on for the last 18 months or so, neitherj> and even that will be military first, and cost neitherj> prohibitive second. neitherj> neitherj> neitherj> neitherj> Jeff Neithercutt CNA, GSEC Wells Fargo Bank Corporate neitherj> Information Protection 155 5th Street MAC 0186-030 San neitherj> Francisco, CA. 94103 (415)243-5549 neitherj> neitherj> neitherj> -----Original Message----- From: Meritt James neitherj> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, March 25, neitherj> 2002 8:44 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] neitherj> Subject: Secure mobile unit? neitherj> neitherj> neitherj> As contradictory as this intuitively seems, is anyone neitherj> aware of anything that even ADVERTISES itself as a neitherj> secure mobile device? I've been asked about a 'secure' neitherj> (whatever that means) mobile (say, wear on belt size, 6 neitherj> oz or so) unit. Haven't been able to find out if voice, neitherj> IP or what. So far, I'm flexible. ;-) neitherj> neitherj> Thanks! -- James W. Meritt CISSP, CISA Booz | Allen | neitherj> Hamilton phone: (410) 684-6566 neitherj> neitherj> -- John Karabaic 3545 Zumstein Ave, Cincinnati OH 45208-1309 513.321.3221 Probably the question asked most often is: Do one-celled animals have orgasms? The answer is yes, they have orgasms almost constantly, which is why they don't mind living in pools of warm slime. -- Dave Barry, "Sex and the Single Amoeba: What Every Teen Should Know"
