UAE Etisalat update was in fact, spyware!

http://www.blackberryos.com/image-fi...s/etisalat.png

Thanks to our member oodinero for giving us the update. Last week Etisalat users in the UAE were prompted with an update on their Blackberry device which was said to increase performance. After installing, it only made their phone slower and drain the battery a lot quicker. It has been confirmed that this update was NOT authorized by RIM and was in fact Spyware, developed by USA California based company SS8. RIM states:

"Etisalat appears to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance application... independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could then enable unauthorised access to private or confidential information stored on the user's smartphone...
independent sources have concluded that the Etisalat update is not designed to improve performance of your BlackBerry Handheld, but rather to send received messages back to a central server"

It is not known why Etisalat wanted to include this software in their update. RIM has went ahead and released their own update to remove the 'infected' update.

Source : BBC News