How secure is Blackberry?

Many Governments including ours insists that they have to have access to some data on the pretext of security. Hasn't BB allowed exceptions for Russia, and recently Saudi Arabia, I know it's funny, possibly UAE too. India is demanding it too. RIM had been given a deadline of Aug 31, 2010 to comply. Whether or not there is a justification for allowing a government to snoop into a set of data is a political question. If One Govt demands access to fight terrorism, others will demand it too. Who should and should not be allowed is a political question too. But we can't discuss those issues here as we are not on OMNI here.

I wouldn't disagree with you there. Death is the best solution to ever increasing health care expenses. You are limited to funeral expenses which you can transfer to your survivors.

I wouldn't disagree with you there. Death is the best solution to ever increasing health care expenses. You are limited to funeral expenses which you can transfer to your survivors.
Now that I agree with your opening sentence, you will agree with me that one doesn't have to tolerate risky behaviour of users of one's network that make it vulnerable.

On the OP(ost), was wondering if having a BlackBerry connected to the network 24/7 is ok? You have nothing to worry about having the device connected 24/7.

Though what I would recommend is buying a dual-radio router, like the Netgear WNDR3700. You can create a separate guest network, then filter out using the MAC Addresses on your main network. Though if someone clones there network card, and figures out the password, its game over.

You will also said "What if his BB had a malware, or was infected. Stupid people can make secure stuff wide open." BB is a very secure Mobile OS. It is conseried the gold standard around the world for security in this area. Why do you think Corporations, Governments and others use them? It is because getting Malware on these devices is very hard to do. The BB also automatically scans the device for anything it considers insecure and removes at random.

As another poster stated, where did you hear there un-secure? Your PCs all hold a greater threat, then the BlackBerry can ever can make it on the network.

Also I like your taking network security very seriously.

I just prefer not to make it easy for them by funneling everything through the grand masters at RIM.

Now I do have a blackberry(no wifi though)

Network passwords I believe are only available to administrators, not regular users. Nobody should be on a network as an administrator for day to day use, they should be on as a regular user.

That being said, I've never heard of blackberry machines infecting anything. It's probably possible, but not something I would be worried about.

Thank you for the respect you chose to give. I suppose however little respect you give me is all that's due. Since I have not stopped looking for expertise, I would like to know if your diagnosis of paranoia has anything to do with your expertise? BTW can you also check my back, it's been hurting lately.

I too used to have WEP with MAC filters. But I learnt, here and other places that MAC address is transmitted unencrypted in the header. My connection now is fast enough that bandwidth stealing is not a problem if all someone is using the stolen bandwidth is to surf. It's the other stuff I am worried about. If you read the discussion, the problem isn't a a stray user hacking into the network, but a hole in the network can be created by a user who is lackadaisical and unconcerned about the security.
It's clear that you haven;t read the discussion carefully. Since then I have discovered other devices whose MAC address doesn't belong to anything we own.

I hear you, and agree with you. But many would argue that in the interest of national security, it's OK to compromise data going through RIM servers.

Oh I think we are talking about different things. I suspect you are talking about the network administration and I am talking about the password or the key for connecting to the network. I apologise if I did not make it clear.
Do I understand you to say that no malware can be installed on BB, not even inadvertently, when the user installs third party apps?

Many of you have asked where I heard that BB's are unsecure. I have stated that my wording was sloppy. The question should have been worded, "How unsecure can BB be?. Or how a BB in the hands of an irresponsible user can create a gaping hole in your security".

Didn't Etisalat install a spyware on its BB users, through a patch that was supposed to "enhance" performance? The spyware was initial turned off, but could be turned on with a command from Etisalat?
It was discovered when some people complained of battery draining quickly.

Which still would only monitor that user's Blackberry.

I will repeat, since we've gotten off topic: having someone connect a Blackberry to your network is the least of your concerns. If you're that paranoid (yes, paranoid) about network security, you should not run a wifi network at all.

Thanks for your advice.
If you have read my initial posts, you would notice that the concern isn't just someone connecting his BB to my network. You are missing the point of my question.
It's a bit silly to use the term "paranoid" without learning what the issue is.

Just did that myself.

Don't need dual radios for that. I operate 4 different (hidden) SSIDs using a single radio in my router. Different SSIDs for different purposes, with different authentication, encryption and firewall rules.

One of those SSIDs is for guest use. I simply disable it when not in use. Its a very quick and simple task to enable it when I have a guest that requires internet access - and the internet is all it can access.

Different radios or different SSID's don't do any good regarding the OP's concerns if they're all behind the same firewall, no?