BlackBerry's Playbook Compromised Just in Time for Annual Hacker Conference

Only a few days after the BlackBerry PlayBook became the first tablet to be certified for US government use, its encryption method has been cracked by Russian based Elcomsoft. The result, according to reporting in Live Hacking, “is that forensic investigators (or hackers, spies and foreign governments) can access email messages, call history, contacts, web browsing history, voicemail and email accounts stored in those backup files.”

The news will likely resonate well at this weekend’s Black Hat conference in Las Vegas. Add the Elcomsoft announcement to planned presentations at Black Hat 2011 on hacking operating systems, android phones, water meters, batteries, and computerized medical devices. See Ryan Naraine’s Top-10 Picks for presentations at Black Hat 2011.

As to the Elcomsoft announcement, BlackBerry’s Playbook, according to Live Hacking, “had just been certified for Government use by passing the FIPS 140-2 certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). No other tablet, including the iPad, has gained this certification and the PlayBook is the only tablet ready for deployment within the U.S. federal government.”