Etisalat prompts UAE Blackberry users to install spyware

When the United Arab Emirates' state-owned cellular operator Emirates Telecommunications Co (Etisalat) asked Blackberry users to upgrade their handsets through a software update provided by it, little did its customers realise that they were uploading a spyware that gave the service provider complete access to their handsets.

Earlier this month, Etisalat sent an SMS to its over 145,000 Blackberry customers, inviting them to click on a link and download a software application called 'Registration' provided by it, which would upgrade their handsets from 2G to 3G standards in order to improve performance.

As thousands of users upgraded their Blackberry handsets, complaints started pouring in of handsets crashing, batteries draining out and difficulty in sending emails.

Many users thought initially that some virus had infected their handsets, while others simply changed the batteries since Etisalat provided little help in solving the problem.

But local programmers, suspecting that something was amiss since the problem occurred only on those handsets, which had been used to download the 'Registration' software, began analysing the software and found that 'Registration' had nothing to do with upgrading their handsets but was, in fact, a surveillance software.

Mobile security experts say the surveillance software gave complete access of the Blackberry handsets to Etisalat, which intercepted all emails and directed them to two of its own central servers. It also provided Etisalat information aboyut the websites the Blackberry user visited and access to all data stored on the handsets.