Documents: NSA can access secure BlackBerry phones

According to a published report out of Germany, internal NSA documents reveal that the agency has the capabilities to steal data from the Apple iPhone, Android powered devices, and even BlackBerry models. The latter platform was supposedly immune to NSA tapping programs. Among the information accessible to spies are a phone's contacts list, text messages sent and received, and your recent locations.

The report says that the NSA has set up teams for each operating system, trying to discover as much secret information held on each platform as they can. Documents state that the agency can gain access to a computer that an iPhone user syncs with while using mini-programs to peer into 38 additional iPhone functions.

And while back in 2009 there was a time when the NSA could not read BlackBerry user's SMS messages, an acquisition made that year led to a change in the way that the Canadian company compressed data. This led to a successful attempt by British intelligence to spy on BlackBerry handsets. And while the company states that it's email system cannot be spied on, NSA documents say the opposite.


source: Spiegel via TheVerge