According to the article, CEO Vladimir Katalov:

All data transmitted between a BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry smartphones is encrypted with a highly secure AES or Triple DES algorithm. Unique private encryption keys are generated in a secure, two-way authenticated environment and are assigned to each BlackBerry smartphone user. Even more, to secure information stored on BlackBerry smartphones, password authentication can be made mandatory through the policies of a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (default, password authentication is limited to ten attempts, after which the smartphone’s wiped clean with all its contents erased). Local encryption of all data, including messages, address book and calendar entries, memos and tasks, is also provided, and can be enforced via the IT policy as well. With the supplied Password Keeper, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption allows password entries to be stored securely on the smartphone, enabling users to keep their online banking passwords, PIN codes, and financial information handy — and secure. If that’s not enough, system administrators can create and send wireless commands to remotely change BlackBerry device passwords, lock or delete information from lost or stolen BlackBerries.

Sounds pretty secure, does it? As always, there is the weakest link. With BlackBerry, the weakest link is its offline backup mechanism.”

The article goes on to say that while this is disturbing, it effects backups alone, and well, frankly they’re “just backups”.  But Katalov also goes on to say that backups are are evil because they create a new instance of information that might be private or sensitive. Then he explains the hole in the BlackBerry backup scheme:

Backup encryption uses AES with a 256-bit key. So far, so good. An AES key is derived from the user-supplied password, and this is where the problem arises.

In short, standard key-derivation function, PBKDF2, is used in a very strange way, to say the least. Where Apple has used 2,000 iterations in iOS 3.x, and 10,000 iterations in iOS 4.x, BlackBerry uses only one. Another significant shortcoming is that it’s BlackBerry Desktop Software that encrypts data, not the BlackBerry device itself. This means that the data is passed from the device to the computer in a plain, unencrypted form. Apple devices act differently; the data is encrypted on the device and never leaves it in an unencrypted form. The Apple desktop software (iTunes) acts only as a storage and never encrypts/decrypts backup data. This is quite surprising since the BlackBerry platform is known for its unprecedented security, and we’ve been expecting BlackBerry backup protection to be at least as secure as Apple’s, which turned not to be the case.

What does that mean for us? We can run password recovery attacks on BlackBerry backups really fast — even without GPU acceleration, we can go over millions of passwords per second.

So, what does all this mean to you?  Simply put, there is a great deal of potential for any company interested in finding the data you back up to be able to get it.  This exploit means that now that it has been proven there is a method to crack this information, a rogue employee, competitor or even just some random hacker looking for a thrill can potentially get your data.

What would that data loss mean to your company?

Think this might be too much of a stretch for you to worry about?  Espionage and data loss occurs only with Fortune 500, government entities or James Bond – right?  I can show you how for about $500 or less, I can hire a motivated programmer to target your server and steal your data.  Really.

This exploit will undoubtedly be fixed, but until its patched, there are plenty of opportunities for your data to be compromised.  Talk to your experts and see what you can do to prevent this from happening today.

Today, our cell phones are an extension of you.  Personalized.  The type of phone your use, tells a little bit about who you are and what you’re about.  Smartphones, applications, crazy add-ons.  Take a look at this video, we’re not a review site but for $894 you can turn your iPhone into a “professional” video camera.

Is this a waste of money, a cinematographer’s necessity, or showing off who you are as a cell phone owner?

In reality, the conversation about whether the above device is ridiculous or essential depends on the participants of the conversation.  A professional or hobbiest obviously who takes their profession seriously might be a practical use for this, but if you just want to take a video of the kids to send to the Grandparents, this might be overkill.  Rather, it is relevant to discuss this because what it underscores to me is the the true passion we have about our mobile devices.  It is really about communication and the rising tide of what we will see coming from not just telecom companies, but participating companies that make applications, latch-on devices, case protectors, musicians have all of a sudden become part of the telecom infrastructure.

In the business world when it comes to communication devices, IT considers itself a black and white participant.  We manage a simple device, give each person a dollar amount to reimburse for their mobile phone/device and that’s it – but it’s becoming so much more.  When the victims of Haiti needed help, you simply texted a message to a charity and you suddenly donated $10  to help in that relief.  Companies such as Apple are attempting to capitalize on the convenience and trust they give to the phone companies are trying to popularize paying for things using your mobile phone .  How are companies going to handle the newest method to drain money from the phone user?  In that moment, your simple IT shop now has the added problem of managing expenses for every mobile device owner in a corporate-liable environment.

In my experience, most people are addressing these new issues in a wait and see approach, but we think that sets a dangerous course that could surprisingly end up costing you tens of, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars more a month than you were expecting.

How much oversite do you give telecom review? Most companies believe that they have a good handle on their spend.  In truth, the vast majority participate in what I call the “last month review”.  They take a look at their bills, if it is within an acceptable percentage of last month’s spend, they approve it and move on.

I can’t tell you how through the course of a year, that could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted, in simple terms that new project you’d like to get approved or the job you’re trying to save could have been justified with closer inspection of your mobile costs.

Our phones are extremely important to us.  They remind us of meetings, hold treasured pictures of our children and grandchildren, they capture brilliant ideas for work and pleasure, give you the latest sports scores oh, and they help us do the cool thing of talking to anybody in the world virtually any place we happen to be.

Watch out, your phone isn’t just a phone.  It’s part of you and your employees.  Don’t think so?  Try leaving your phone at home next week – see how long it makes you feel.

More often than we care to hear, we get feedback that what we offer makes absolute sense for them to do, then we hear the fatal word “BUT“.  “We know we need to do this but, I don’t have the time to put toward making this happen right now”, “I know we’re paying too much, but I need to think about it”, “I want to do this but we don’t have time for all the long and drawn out meetings” (which there are none) – BUT BUT BUT.

Ultimately, companies we’ve talked to about our services a majority of the time do eventually decide to move forward, and inevitably we hear – “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”

Let’s take a company that spend on average $20,000 monthly on telecommunications services each month.  It can encompass local, long distance, internet, data, PBX and wireless services combined.  If for instance your savings was able to provide you with an average 20% savings, you’re currently missing on $4,000 PER MONTH of savings unnecessarily.

If you take a look at the chart below you can see, depending on your spend and savings your operating costs could be reduced easily and with NO EFFORT on your part by engaging with a telecom cost recovery company.

More than likely, your company is wasting money unnecessarily, don’t let telecom be one of those expenses.  Our goal is to NOT to create disruption, nor will it involve any great deal of time investment.  If you can see by spending less than 2 hours TOTAL with us, your savings could be tremendous.   Contact GrayBear Resources Group and let us show you what we can do.

According to Engadget “Without giving a hard figure, the company[SPRINT] says that it expects to launch WiMAX service in “many” markets this year, with several notables among the lot: Boston, Denver, Kansas City, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC are all called out by name. SF and the Big Apple in particular will be huge wins”

The deployment of Sprint’s WiMAX will offer technologies to rival the Long Term Evolution (LTE) projects that many carriers around the world including Verizon and AT&T are adopting to build a the last leg of the 4G networks for the demands of speed and capacity consumers are asking for.

The race is interesting to watch and could decide what technologies dominate the next iteration of data communications.  Billions are at stake, we’ll see how this shakes out for the next chapter of data communications.

BONUS MAKE YOURSELF LOOK SMARTER TIDBIT:  If you’ve heard all the rah-rah about 3G networks and heard about 4G, all that the “G” means is generation.  3rd generation, 4th generation, it has nothing to do with any scientific mumbo jumbo – but it sounds cool doesn’t it?

The reasons for such an ambitious plan includes the ability access new markets and create business growth in fields in all areas of the US that would require broadband access in order to thrive.  Applications such as distance learning, telemedicine to giving users broadband access for the first time, in fact the chairman sites 100 Mbps as NOT the ultimate goal but he would like to shoot past and provide even higher speeds to consumers, perhaps such as Google’s recently announced initiative of 1 Gpbs speed for up to 500,000 customers.

There are significant obstacles that exist for the plan which are primarily due to the technology available today.   According to electronista:

Current cable modem service often peaks at 25Mbps and is typically expensive at this rate; new DOCSIS 3.0 modems can reach 100Mbps but are only available in a few areas and are so far only served 50Mbps connections. Verizon is the best prepared with its fiber optic FiOS network but would need to complete more upgrades to reach the 100Mbps speed across most of its network.

Internet providers have also traditionally been resistant to any moves to supply broadband to many rural areas that would be needed to reach the 90 percent coverage target, going so far as to sponsor “astroturf” (fake grassroots) organizations and engaging in frequent lobbying to discourage mandates for service in these areas. The advent of 4G is expected to mitigate some of this as it substantially lowers the cost of covering a remote area, although LTE and similar standards may provide much less than 100Mbps in practice.

While the exact method for deployment isn’t necessarily very clear, the plan is potentially good news for the end user.  What companies participate and how this plan is executed will be something we all should watch.  Wireless technology such as WiMax may offer a solution to help make this plan a reality and allow broad deployment, but keep your eyes peeled and those broadband hungry applications ready.

This morning, the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) has announced their intentions of creating a unified open platform that would allow develops of applications to create an application program one time and that app would be able to be deployed to work on any carrier, device and operating system – universally.

The number of companies backing the WAC are 24 and include some of the biggest names in the wireless business today.   Of the largest names participating include AT&T, China Mobile, Orange, Verizon, Sprint and device manufacturers LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.  Such an idea, if successful would be an incredible dream for mobile developers as it would allow them to create an application one time rather than have to redesign the same application for different platforms and networks.

While some view it as a huge announcement that could potentially change the face of the applications, there are a few who view it as a potential disaster.

We’ll leave the pundits to argue whether such an organization’s grand plans will actually work or fail, what is obvious to us is absolutely certain, mobile devices are NO LONGER simply communication services that can be regulated from a spreadsheet.  There is potential for your organization to at the very least incur added charges to your monthly bill to, at the worst case  incur a data breach or malware attack from a rogue app.

The role of the mobile device is quickly changing, it is your responsibility to find the right way to manage those devices such as a software application that knows everything from keeping a mobile device policy, average departmental spend and accounting for inventory control.  An automated program can alleviate those type of headaches.  Talk to your telecom management firm to learn more about your options and how you can get ahead of the ever-changing mobile landscape.

The speeds that Google is looking to provide to the end user are over 1 gigabit per second, or in rough terms is approximately 100 times faster than what users typically see today.  Think about that for a second – 100 times!  The driving force behind such a push are varied but as PC World put it,

“From a user perspective, satisfaction with Internet connection speed is relative. Long after DSL and cable broadband were available, many users were still happily dialing in with 56k modems. Happy, that is, until they visited a friend or relative with broadband and saw what was possible.

Business customers may be perfectly satisfied with current mid-range offerings from Comcast and AT&T. Broadband speeds of 6 Mbps, or 12 Mbps are just fine for many business purposes. However, needs change and technology evolves. Businesses that need to transfer large files or perform real-time video streaming might be frustrated with speeds twice that fast.”

The takeaway it would seem is that next generation applications potentially have greater appeal to be built and adopted by businesses and consumers with an increased amount of bandwidth if available to the end user.  Additionally, you don’t know what you’re missing and what’s possible until you have literally no restrictions on the speed of the data communications.  This starts to make even more sense as Google is trying to elevate their cloud-based computer offerings to the general public and businesses meaning services that you run currently ON your computer could be hosted on the cloud.  Google recently announced their Chrome Operating System that will rely more on applications that are hosted on servers rather than use the processing power and hard drive of your computer today.  Google may have their eyes on pushing those services and potentially have a need to develop faster speeds and shove their competitors to do the same.

Regardless, you should keep your eyes peeled on what’s happening regarding Google’s broadband initiative, if you’re interested in getting your community involved or learning more, go here to sign up.

So what do you do to prevent information overload and even confused sales people from giving you the wrong information you need?

Here are a couple of tips to help remedy this problem:

1.  Fully understand the scope of your services and what your REQUIRE. Too many times I see that price as the complete bottom line when selecting a carrier or phone system for instance, I’ll tell you now, there is ABSOLUTELY a difference in the quality of various providers of seemingly similar services.  Not simply from a technological standpoint, but competency, feature sets and things like customer service and reputation still play a big part in your selection.  We sat down with a client who bemoaned the fact that a phone system supposedly had a certain feature set and could be upgraded for a modest fee or simply “turned on” for them at no cost.  In reality, they had to spend over $20,000 for this feature and since he had purchased the phone system last year he felt forced into buying this upgrade.

2.  Your sales rep’s word should never be gospel. I have seen in more than one occasion where the sales team was just dead wrong about a question regarding a product or service.  To move forward with your decision criteria based on false information can ruin your whole network configuration or have you paying for fees that you weren’t expecting.  In one case, I actually was witness to PURPOSEFULLY false information presented to a prospective client because the sales rep was leaving in two weeks, but wanted to get the commission before she left.  Luckily, the client didn’t pick that vendor.  Yes – this really happens.

3.  Check the website and pull tariff information if possible. In the cases where very specific information is needed don’t be afraid to do a little “heavy lifting”.  I’ve seen a few times where simply checking some information on the website would have revealed that fees that were being charged in actuality were bogus, network coverage was handled by partner companies and not the vendor and where the customer service number when called yielded an hour long wait on the phone, not the claimed “immediate response”.  Today, we have a great deal of information at our fingertips, be sure to use it.

4.  Trust.  It can be deceiving. I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again, it is imperative that you have a good relationship with your vendors, but be careful that it’s not taken lightly.  I enjoy a very comfortable relationship with some carrier representatives because that can be important for us to do a good job for our clients.  But I never take it for granted, if I’m really unsure I’ll check with multiple contacts to verify critical information is accurate and that what we hear is relayed back to our clients confidently.  Every now and then, and I believe to be a factor of laziness rather than malice, information is incorrect and I’m glad we checked and double checked.  Make sure you do the same.

All companies that have significant telecom bills need to realize that you are given the opportunity to get the best services and prices in the industry, at the same time be sure you recognize that some may try and take advantage of that and see you as their meal ticket and a fat payday.   Be sure you or have your telecom audit firm make sure it’s not you that gets the short end of the stick.

If you study certain aspects of his management style, you can learn how to implement his techniques when dealing with your company’s telephony, and how to leverage it to your advantage.  Never really thought about an approach like this before?  Here are 5 tips you can start using today:

1.  “Don’t follow the rules, make them.” What most companies typically do when evaluating a telecom provider or telecom services  is to determine if what they offer make sense (technology and cost) and accept that service.  Depending on what your needs are and overall spend, those services may not fit precisely OR even be the company’s best program.  In most cases, your sales rep will work only as hard as they perceive they have to.  If there is plenty of competition out there they will work harder than if they feel the for instance as the, incumbent provider they don’t have to give their best offer or research how they can be the best fit for you, so you have to let them know they will have to work to make the cut.  If your budget is less than $100K per month, it is hard for you to demand customized solutions from your carriers, but not impossible.  So think how can my carriers give me what I need and what are they doing for my competition?

2.  “Be relentless with your vendors and service providers when they have the business.” Steve Jobs isn’t scared to let a company always be on pins and needles.  IBM once handled the processing for their computers before giving it to Intel.  Providers that build their computers are held to strict confidentiality clauses that if a peep gets out about a new product, they could be axed before they event know what hit them.   Similarly, once you’ve awarded your providers with your business, you need to keep pressing them.  Increased levels of service, price reductions when warranted, updates to new technologies.  It is completely your responsibility to make sure you have the best of the best from your carrier.  Unfortunately, as businesses have many responsibilities to conduct every day, it is nearly impossible to dedicate time to making sure your vendors do their best for you, don’t miss this one as telecommunications is integral to every growing business.

3.  “Continuously evaluate and review, are you getting better service and technology than the competition?” Apple continuously asks “How can we leverage our size, technology, intelligence etc better to stay ahead of the competition?”  All too often, companies view telecom as a necessary service that is used and never leveraged.  That type of thinking can leave your company behind in your market.  When 800 services, faxing, email and the internet starting becoming popular – many companies reluctantly starting using those services only when the world started shouting “YOU’D BETTER USE THOSE SERVICES BECAUSE YOU NEED TO!”  For the companies that studies the services before they became popular, and started to adopt and leverage those technologies, they were ahead of the curve and made millions more than their competitors.  Slowly other companies started getting on the bandwagon because they had to but other companies where ahead of the curve already had quite a head start.

4.  “Push those services to the limit.” Apples asks “How can you make this happen?” every day from their partners.  They want to squeeze the most from them and push the thinking of their company AND vendors.  How much can you get from the platforms you have at your disposal today?  Are you getting the types of service levels you can from your providers?  Are there services that are offered by your carriers that are unique that you could take advantage of?  Does your sales rep or engineer from the carrier not get what you’re looking for?  If not, ask for another one.  If your business has a large reliance on the phone, perhaps you’re missing something that other companies are using or something you all should be using but aren’t.  Ask, ask and ask some more.

5.  “Be creative where no one else is.” When the iPod was introduced, the MP3 player had been around for a long time.  Because Apple’s Steve Job’s was at the helm when it the iPod was introduced it was elegant, simple and innovative.  Their approach to music has become legendary and changed the industry completely.  Cheap single songs from the iTunes store, that could carry huge libraries that eventually started carrying videos and video cameras and eventually a phone and who knows what for the future.  How long was that type of device around before Apple got into that business?  How much as the industries they’ve entered into changed since they brought their products on the market?  Once upon a time, there was no clear leader is when Steve Jobs entered the ring they started to dominate those fields. How are you looking at your telecom services and how are you being creative with your business with those tools?

There you go.  When you take a fresh look at the same old services, you can get a new perspective and understand what a quality telecom auditor and management company can do for you.  It’s not always practical for a company to use telecom services in this way, but a smart choice is to choose a zero-cost firm like GrayBear for you to do these services and more for you.

The article goes on to state that “the per-victim cost for a data breach involving a lost or stolen laptop was $225 in 2009, 10% higher than the average total cost of a data breach and 5% higher than the cost of a breach caused by a malicious attack.