NHCBBA was just on the phone with T-Mobile and found out there is a PROBLEM with the BIS system… (CONFIRMED) They stated that this is problems with connecting to the RIM Servers to SEND email and other things on the RIM NETWORK. NHCBBA started to have trouble over this past weekend with not being able to send out any Email from our Blackberry 9780 and 9530 phones. We had just posted a story on that RIM is make a BIG upgrade from 4.0 to BIS 4.1. So it might be happening as we speak here in the USA.
Please keep us updated if your having trouble on your Blackberry’s also send us a email (Tips@nhcbba.com), BBM or comment below
We’ve been inundated with a flood of tips from Big Applers this morning, and we just confirmed ourselves — a large sect of AT&T users in New York City aren’t receiving calls. Even the ones who aren’t just holding it wrong. It seems as if outgoing calls operate just fine, but folks trying to dial in are greeted with eternal ringing. As in, it doesn’t even go to voicemail. We’re assuming the engineers at Ma Bell are all over this as we speak, but be sure to let us know how wrecked your Big City life is due to this in comments below.
Update: Right on cue, AT&T pinged us to say everything should be back to normal. The formal quote is below: “Wireless voice service has been restored and is back to normal now after a software issue occurred during routine maintenance which caused some customers on Long Island and in parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan to experience voice service disruptions this morning. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.”
If you’re a BlackBerry developer who’s constantly developing, you’ll most likely have been upset with the fact that you could not get your apps signed over the weekend. According to Tyler Lessard, head of Developer Relations at RIM, they recently had some issues with the stability of their code signing servers and a diagnostic activity that was acting abnormally is to blame:
Earlier this week, BlackBerry® developers were not able to sign their applications during periods of downtime of the code signing service. The issues that we experienced have now been resolved and I’d like to apologize to the community for this situation. We realize this can be a disruption to your business and we take issues like this very seriously.
As soon as the issue was identified, it was escalated for root cause analysis and resolution. Through that investigation, we identified a diagnostic activity that was acting abnormally during the signing process. Upon resolving the issue with this diagnostic process, operations were restored to a level of service that we would expect.
The signing servers are now operating normally and developers can continue with code signing. We are continuing to monitor the service closely and are actively evaluating new solutions that we can implement to improve the reliability of the service overall. As always, thank you for your support and for bearing with us through this exercise.
Now that the code signing servers are back up and running let’s see some awesome BlackBerry app releases and updates!
Chicago-area T-Mobile users just waking up are alerting us of a data outage currently underway in the Chicago area due to power outages. We’ve independently confirmed potential data and voice troubles through unofficial channels and are waiting to learn more details. Early morning comments on the blog indicate the trouble has been ongoing for several hours. The problem is said to be somewhat limited to areas that have been without power due to yesterday’s storms. We’ll update this post as soon as we get official word.
OK We’ve been getting plenty of users in North America and Europe letting us know their has been some issues with BIS as of late. Many folks in the UK have spoken up in the Other Sites forums and for some North American users BIS over WiFi has been down for what is going on Monday and Tue. Some carriers are advising that it is due to a BIS update that is rolling out now but — the accuracy in that info cannot be confirmed at this time. What about you all, any issues? If so speak up in the comments
This year’s Pwn2Own event is well underway in Vancouver. The yearly event takes the best White hat hackers and challenges them to exploit computers and operating systems so that their vulnerabilities may be shared with the owners of those operating systems in an effort to make them more secure. In previous years, Research In Motion has stood its ground but this year results are now in for BlackBerry. The news however, isn’t the best. This year, a BlackBerry Torch running OS 6.0.0.246 was successfully exploited using the long awaited WebKit browser. The browser exploit allowed Vincenzo Iozzo, Willem Pinckaers and Ralf Philipp Weinmann to gain access to all contact information as well as the image database. Research In Motion’s director of security, Adrian Stone was on hand to confirm the exploit and made the following statements about it:
“It happens. It’s not what you want but there’s no such thing as zero code defects,” in addition to that statement Stone also advised that RIM’s security team would analyze the date to see if it was a true zero-day flaw and if so, then a fix would created and then rolled out to carrier partners so that end-users get it. This situation of course assumes that it hasn’t already been fixed in a later revised OS. But that could not be confirmed at the time.
Given that Research In Motion doesn’t use any underlying security in its OS such as ASLR or DEP and others do, it is something that Research In Motion is looking to be adding at a later time. When asked about the security within BlackBerry devices Vicenzo Izzo noted “The advantage for BlackBerry is the obscurity. It makes it a bit harder to attack a system if you don’t have documentation and information,” which leads into the fact that WebKit while Open Source, is an Apple derived product with lots of detailed information about it being available to all.
BlackBerry is a mostly secure platform, but information on a new Zeus Trojan that has migrated to the BlackBerry has recently been announced. In an effort to help keep you and your fellow BlackBerry users safe, we want to share the details of the trojan. According to infoseland “The malware allows remote access of infected Blackberry devices by the attacker, who can then change the SMS message default number, add a new device administrator, control blocked call lists, and even turn the device on and off. The Trojan also removes itself from the list of installed applications to avoid scanning and detection by antivirus software.”
Cert Polska reports that once the trojan is downloaded, you have a few removal options. The trojan sent the file cert.jad . Upon it’s installation, you’ll find sertificate, which is either sertificate.jar or sertificate.cod under Options -> Applications. Delete this application and reboot your phone. If this is unsuccessful or if you’d like a more thorough approach, you can do a full wipe of the device.
Stay safe out there and don’t install software via SMS unless you specifically requested it.
When the chaotic riots began in Egypt this last week against the government, BlackBerry service was intentionally cut off to users. NBC has released an announcement that BlackBerry users in Cairo are able to get online and all services are once again activated in the city.
“We haven’t had any word on other cities, but we were told that the country’s service was all down at one point according to the tip.”
We’d like to keep as up-to-date as possible on this current event so we’ll keep an eye on this situation for curiosity’s sake. We welcome any further tips from our readers so feel free to leave a comment and discuss this issue!
*Update 2* – 11:35am EST Many reports of BIS being back up rolling in across all the carriers in question. Issue seems to be resolved. Give it a little time to hit all users across the many regions in question.
*Update* – 11:20am EST – It looks like users (including myself) are now able to send emails, but still not receive. Hopefully full email capabilities will be back up soon.
It’s been quite a while since we had an outage across multiple carriers and regions in North America, but it looks like BIS email is down for most carriers across the US and parts of Canada. No one is receiving email, but it appears that browser, BlackBerry Messenger, voice and SMS are still working however. It looks like the outage started in the wee hours of the morning today, but there is no word on when they’ll be up and running. Keep it here and we’ll report anything as it pops up. Jump into the forums for more discussion.
Night Hawk Computers Blackberry Alliance 