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Handhelds Security Hardware

BBC Shuts Down Internal BlackBerry Service 123

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the but-i-thought-sharing-information-was-good dept.
sebFlyte writes "Silicon.com is running a story on a little problem the BBC is having with their email. Apparently, the BBC has suspended service to all its executives BlackBerrys, because the server software was randomly sending chunks of messages to arbitrary users, thus showing execs each others emails. Not what you want from your remote-working solution, really."
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BBC Shuts Down Internal BlackBerry Service More

BBC Shuts Down Internal BlackBerry Service

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  • News Flash! (??) (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lord Grey ( 463613 ) * on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:08PM (#13882121)
    Oh my. 300 people experience a bug in an email service.

    SLASHDOT, FRONT PAGE! RUN IT!

    What? The bug was fixed in a later version?

    It's a slow news day. RUN IT!

    • It's not a bug. It's feature.

      AND, we didn't even charge you for it.

    • Re:News Flash! (??) (Score:4, Funny)

      by theJML ( 911853 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:37PM (#13882405) Homepage
      (Random BBC Exec)Hm... slow day, time to surf Slashdot a bit... Hey the BBC shutdown blackberry support, that's funny-- Wait, I work for the BBC... What?? My blackberry E-mail is down!?! The IT Guys never told me that! Good thing I get my news from slashdot or I'd be sending e-mails all day on that blasted thing! Hey, it could happen...
    • ...but the general idea of a meltdown where messages got sent from corporate bigwigs inboxes and outboxes to random people.

      Personally I think that's a little slice of chaos I've been wondering how long it would take to happen.

    • At least they didn't post something claiming it was caused by storm-generated capacitance and other new age numbo-jumbo.

  • askdfj asdfj bork bork (Score:4, Funny)

    by darkmeridian ( 119044 ) <william.chuangNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:11PM (#13882156) Homepage
    kjskdvnjkas hfjkh fjj sfkdsak fkldsfj ajsf ksjaflkjfskd jask
    skjf salkdfj skldfjkljsdnfjsndf

    ------------------------
    Sent from my handheld Blackberry.

  • You don't? (Score:4, Funny)

    by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:12PM (#13882161) Journal
    You mean it's not a good thing for the execs to communicate with one another?

    Oh wait, you mean when the execs say something like, "Yeah, that Bob from Accouting. What a tightwad. I'm pretty sure if he bent over the board in his ass would snap."

    Never mind. Now I understand.

    • Re:You don't? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Thud457 ( 234763 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:40PM (#13882436) Homepage Journal
      Obviously the email system spontaneously decided to flatten the organizational hiearchy and institute a distributed swarming organization instead.

      I say the BBC should sit tight and let this progress on its own. It could totally reinvent they way they operate. Hell, just institute a email policy that randomly emails everyting to anyone in the organization. Google probably already has a patent on this.

    • > You mean it's not a good thing for the execs to communicate with one another?

      If this keeps up, the left hand will find out what the right hand has been up to.

  • Serves them right (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Blitzenn ( 554788 ) * on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:12PM (#13882164) Homepage Journal
    hmm. Didn't they (BBC) just layoff or outsource a huge part of their IT staff? Perhaps the lack of personel to properly set up the application (Blackberry Server) might be part of it? Can you really 'get by' without experienced help? Is this a result of the BBC slashing their IT staff to the bone? I would dare say that it would be hard to argue that it did not have some effect.
    • They did [bbc.co.uk] outsource all the IT operations & sell off BBC Technology. It went to Siemens. I'll leave the rest of you to decide if that was a good idea. Whether it meant laying off a phalanx of staff, you'll have to look yourself.

      • Re:Serves them right (Score:2, Informative)

        by pedigree ( 700642 )
        They sold all of BBC Technology and 7 BBC News staff to Siemens Business Services. All the same people working in the same desk, just getting paid by a different company. Frankly, I really didnt like it when it was announced but now I do. You really know who your friends are as they used to be nice to you but now call you "bloodly Siemens" - go figure.

    • Re:Serves them right (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's the same people managing the service. It's just they were outsourced.

      They've always had a funny "not invented here" approach which means that systems are often quite strange and non standard. I expect this email problem happened was because they insisted they do it their own way not how everyone else does it. That has been their downfall many times.

      Nothing wrong with inventing new solutions, but BBC T (or certain parts of it) insists on re-inventing the wheel for every project!
  • Maybe sharing emails is their way of coming out of a closed system?

    Methinks it would help jumpstart collaboration-ware

  • saying that he was going to lift up my tight leather miniskirt and spank my because I was a bad girl. (hint: I am male)

  • Hmm... (Score:4, Funny)

    by axonal ( 732578 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:16PM (#13882220)
    Dissatisfied with your current size? Use a natural enhancer "Looks like our CEO has some confidence problems..."

  • Chunks? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Reality Master 101 ( 179095 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <101retsaMytilaeR>> on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:17PM (#13882231) Homepage Journal
    Did it mix chunks of messages? That could really cause some fun... "Hey Bob, I really need that report on $*%)^ your hot body... I can't wait to rub my hands all over your @!@#%! convention. You should be ready to go on a moment's notice. -- Phil."

  • A good little reminder (Score:5, Insightful)

    by saskboy ( 600063 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:22PM (#13882263) Homepage Journal
    It's a good reminder, and thus newsworthy. Never write something into an email that you wouldn't say to the face of whoever you're talking about.

    Talking about confidential matters is what encryption and the telephone or face to face conversation is for. And if you have a "party-line" the telephone won't work either.
    • > Never write something into an email that you wouldn't say to the face of whoever
      > you're talking about.

      And if anyone suggests you use any sort of online service where your data lives on someone elses server try not to laugh as you turn them down.
    • It's a good reminder, and thus newsworthy. Never write something into an email that you wouldn't say to the face of whoever you're talking about.

      Never commit to permanent record (such as email, blog, forum, possibly phone conversation) anything that you wouldn't want to have to explain to a judge in open court, have reported in the news media and have your mother watch/read.

      Welcome to the real world. It sucks, and it's only paranoia if they aren't out to get you.
  • ...a mail with content like "My wife's on vacations, so what do you think sweetie? Tonight at 9PM? Luvz." arriving to another exec.

    Hilarity ensues :)

  • Memo (Score:5, Informative)

    by raind ( 174356 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:29PM (#13882325) Journal
    Did they not get the memo?

    Service Pack 3 for BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0 for Microsoft Exchange is now available for download.

    Please visit http://www.blackberry.com/support/downloads/index. shtml [blackberry.com] to access the service pack and a list of fixed issues, software updates, and additional information.

    Thank you,

    BlackBerry Software Releases
    Research In Motion Limited
    Telephone: 1-877-255-2377 | (+1) 519-888-6181
    Email: help@blackberry.net
    Web: http://www.blackberry.com/ [blackberry.com]

    • Re:Memo (Score:4, Funny)

      by Lord Grey ( 463613 ) * on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:41PM (#13882447)
      Last I heart, the IT support guy at the BBC who tracks these things did receive the memo on his BlackBerry:
      Servic CHECK OUT OUR NEW CARTRIDGE PRICES! rprise Serve ONE-POUND-A-DAY DIET osoft Exchange is now available TO JOIN ME, I'VE HELPED OVER 4000 DO THE SAME.

      Please visit http://www.getrichclick.com/ [getrichclick.com] to CONTROL YOUR WEIGHT!! and a list of fixed issues, software updates, and DIPLOMAS FROM PRESTIGIOUS NON-ACCREDITED UNIVERSITIES BASED ON YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCE.

      Thank you,

      1 bottle of Impulse...$19.95 or Buy 2 Bottles and receive a 3rd BOTTLE FREE!

      Orders shipped the day they are received. All items are shipped in discreet unmarked packaging. Your credit card will be discreetly billed.

      To find out more, visit our website:

      http://208.166.10.10/sub2 [208.166.10.10]

    • Re:Memo (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Duhavid ( 677874 )

      Yes, they did, they applied the service pack.

      *Now* they have the bug.

      • Nope. (Score:4, Informative)

        by missing000 ( 602285 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @02:06PM (#13882676)
        From TFA:

        The company said in a statement: "RIM has developed and tested a fix for an obscure bug identified in a specific service pack release for BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The bug was isolated to version 4.02 and does not exist in version 4.03 or other earlier versions. RIM is aware of a single reported incident of the bug and responded promptly with a fix."
        • Mine was an attempt at humour. I had put humour
          indicators in the message, but I did it XML format,
          and they apparently got stripped.
          • <oops!>
            Seems someone didn't use the preview function.
            </oops!>

            The magic codes are & lt; and & gt;

            Remove the spaces and all will be well.

        • Re:Nope. (Score:2, Informative)

          by Blackforge ( 8018 )
          4.0 Service Pack 2 had other issues besides this with the installer. It didn't remove all the services when I attempted the install. The install noticed this claimed to "revert" back and left me with an uninstalled server. Luckily you could just reinstall Service Pack 1 and everything was back to normal. (Easier than a restore.) Still makes you want to do an undie check.

          Each service pack install in the 3.6 server was hilarious. After you had the server up and running for awhile, you would notice tons

  • Ooops (Score:4, Insightful)

    by t_allardyce ( 48447 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:30PM (#13882341) Journal
    Not surprising really, if you think about it your data is usually only a few bits away from going somewhere you dont want, its just a question of how many bits and how likely they are to be corrupted.

    • Re:Ooops (Score:4, Informative)

      by Duhavid ( 677874 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:50PM (#13882543)
      Nope, not suprising at all.

      I worked on a wireless email system once upon a time. Used CDO to talk to Exchange.
      Found out that sometimes the CDO object that represented a logged on user would
      lose it's mind and start thinking it was a different logged on user. Had to add
      in code to keep who that CDO object thought it was representing, and check it each
      time we brought it out to use it. Retire it, create a new one if it was different.

      Course, we caught it in testing, not in the field, lucky us.
  • Research in Motion's stock is down over $5 today and has trading has been halted on the TSX. Coincidence?
    • Perhaps, but I think it's well warranted.
      Considering that the problem here was already fixed with a patch and is only local to an older version 4.02 of the BES, I think they have good reason to halt trading until the BS clears.

    • Re:RIM's stock halted...down $5 on TSX (Score:4, Informative)

      by Gogo Dodo ( 129808 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:59PM (#13882631)
      Coincidence. The real reason for the trading halt is that the Supreme Court has denied RIM's emergency appeal of the NTP patent verdict [yahoo.com].

  • Leave it to the Beeb (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:41PM (#13882446) Journal
    The BBC tech department amuses me. Not patching on schedule, etc.

    Follow the link in TFA that goes to the BBC's limiting employees to the use of PocketPC2002. Pretty funny stuff there:

    "An internal email from the company's technology division stated all PDA platforms other than PocketPC are insecure - which will prevent anybody operating a Palm or Psion handheld device from using their PDA at work."

    Which impies that the Beeb's tech division believes PocketPC to be secure. If we've learned anything over the decades, no system is secure.

    The email said reasons of security and unusually, the "exposure to users of health and safety risks" left the company with no other choice but the PocketPC platform.

    Health and safety risks for not using PocketPC? What, like Palm caused PDAs to emit toxins or explode in 2002?

    • The BBC tech department amuses me. Not patching on schedule, etc.

      The BBC run one of the most advanced networks in the world. It's been covered on Slashdot before. Granted they have different depts and I doubt this gaff was done by the same people.

      Which impies that the Beeb's tech division believes PocketPC to be secure.

      No, they probably believe that it's the most secure. And as it works with SSL out of the box and there are no known viruses on the platform. Those two things are right at the top on m

      • I've an acquaintance who is a field researcher (reporter?) for the BBC. I emailed him about this, he said their IT depts are great, he's rarely had problems anywhere in the world, and when he does, they get things straightened out right away.

        "Mind you, my tinfoil hat is whispering in my ear that they were likely all PR stunts anyway! ;-)"

        That's not a tinfoil hat... that's just well-founded cynicism. And if you think your TFH is whispering in your ear, obviously it has holes in it and is letting the m
  • I'm not having an affair with your best friend!

    It was just the email system malfunctioning!

    I swear!
  • Dear Joe,

    It has come to my attention th

                                hould have seen the size of her knoc

          uments have been shredded ahead of the auditor's vis

                s the biggest assh

    unch on Friday?

    Sincerely,
    Dave

  • Slashdot - Recent Intelligence Solutions for Nerds (Score:3, Funny)

    by Cyburbia ( 695748 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @01:48PM (#13882522) Homepage
    "Remote-working solution?" Didn't it used to be called a "PDA?"

    It's sad to see marketing -speak cross over from the boardroom to Slashdot articles and posts. Seriously, there's more marketing jargon in some threads than a stack of press releases from a soon-to-be-bankrupt 1999 dot-com.

    If you'll excuse me, I have to use the solid biological waste transport solution for something that's robust, scalable and end-to-end.

  • 1. Avoid gossiping about your colleagues. 2. If (1) fails, avoid being _the_ office gossiper. 3. In any case DON'T WRITE IT DOWN!!! Not on paper, not on email, not no nothing! Still I bet there were some extremely funny incidents.

  • be careful your e-mail (Score:3, Interesting)

    by yagu ( 721525 ) * <{yayagu} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @02:01PM (#13882646) Journal

    I don't know about today, but I can relate my experience.

    I once was part of an e-mail group and was assigned the task of writing a pseudo-mime interface into our smtp allowing transfer of binary information. (This was pre-mime.)

    I would amass large test streams of e-mails and data for testing. And while I did strive for discretion, invariably I got a peek here and there of the e-mail messages. I had to assert complete conversion in and out of binary form with no changes to the originals. I did do this mostly with diff scripting, but for sanity checks would read text to ensure that the starting point of my work looked reasonable and uncorrupted.

    I wasn't surprised to see very personal messages exchanged, but what surprised me most was the blatant conducting of what were clearly illicit affairs via e-mail! And, how many times I saw those kinds of messages!

    I never associated message text with address info, so it was anonymous voyeurism, but I must say I was shocked.

    Word to the wise, never conduct any transactions or conversations via e-mail you wouldn't mind showing up in some blog, or bulletin, etc. I suspect the level of monitoring of e-mail is even more prevalent today than the day I was doing that work.

  • To still produce unmanaged software. Sounds like pointer problems or buffer overruns to me. This is an expensive way to find out though. Java or .NET for me (for enterprise applications).
    • Sounds like pointer problems or buffer overruns to me.

      Hate to break it to ya, sunshine, but the BES, which I'm assuming BBC to have been using, is a big, bloated, memory hog, daily recycle requiring, Java application.
      • the BES, which I'm assuming BBC to have been using, is a big, bloated, memory hog, daily recycle requiring, Java application.

        BES is absolute crap (as opposed to the handhelds, which are excellent), but I finally got ours in a state where the server doesn't need to be restarted every day:

        - Make sure Outlook is not installed on the server.
        - Make sure the Exchange 2003 System Manager *is* installed, patched to SP1.
        - Patch or upgrade to the latest version of BES (4.0.2 hotfix 2 before I went on vacation - the h
    • Um - you realize the almost ALL of RIM's stuff is in Java. There are some smaller integration peices to interop with Exchange - but the BULK of their platform is Java-based...
      • The bug related to a "rare conjunction" of circumstances "whereby v4.02 failed to properly compensate for an (here it comes, ed.) unusual memory allocation error generated by a company's mail server and consequently appended a partial message to another email.

        "Neither the original message or the appended partial message were ever exposed outside the company's firewall and the bug did not generate any external risk. Customers using v4.02 may obtain this fix from RIM or install v4.03."

        Source:

        http://www.vnunet [vnunet.com]

  • (no subject) (Score:3, Funny)

    by http101 ( 522275 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @02:12PM (#13882743) Homepage
    If you're employed by Research In Motion, does that mean you've got a RIM-job?
  • I just happen to have a patent on a system and method for sending random bits of information to unintended users via a handheld device. I'll be rolling in money, if Research In Motion Ltd. leaves me any, that is.

  • Serves them right (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SysKoll ( 48967 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @02:27PM (#13882860)
    So a patch started wrecking havoc in the message DB. Not a big deal in itself. However, I am a bit shocked that the BBC, or whoever manages their IT, did not first deploy the patch on a test server to give it a good whack. This is quite casual. You don't put a patch in production in a large organization without a test deployment first!

    The BBC IT seem to have a very peculiar notion of security, anyway. Witness the quote from TFA: The issue of risk has figured large in [the BBC's] PDA strategy. In 2002, the BBC banned any of its staff from using devices not based on a Microsoft operating system.. So they enforce use of MS to reduce risk? Errr...

    This quote points to another Silicon.com article from 2002 saying, "We believe PocketPC includes all functionality and is one the most secure platforms available."

    Which, to say the least, is a strong statement in light of the multiple vulnerabilities affecting MS products. The functionality issue is certainly defensible, but as for security, I have a doubt.

    • In 2002, the BBC banned any of its staff from using devices not based on a Microsoft operating system.. So they enforce use of MS to reduce risk? Errr...

      Earlier this year a fellow in our local linux/unix users group told a funny story of how MS Word docs had just been banned in email where he worked.

      It seems a VP had sent around a message that naturally everyone wanted to read, and it was a Word doc. The recipients on unix-like systems often didn't have anything that could decode it, and a lot of them just
  • Could the BOFH [theregister.co.uk] be working for the BBC? That's just the kind of thing he would do.
    • Nah, he generally tries to get rid of one boss at a time, possibly the head of IT sometimes, but not all execs at once...
    • Speaking of BOFH, there hasn't been a new episode posted in quite some time... whats up with that?
  • I cannot help but think since the Hutton Report, (where the BBC had been admonished for various anti-government stances) the BBC has lost some of its impartial nature.

    Having it's technological backbone whipped out (outsourced to Siemens I think) may have left the animal nothing more than a jelly.

    The BBC generally runs pro big business and pro establishment these days and has a slight touch of 'community pamphlet' about it.

    Still it's early days for its new management, and I'm hopeful but nevertheless s

  • We have had outlook send out e-mails as random other users - secretary randomly promoted to CEO, that sort of fun.

    Solution involved rebooting every desktop in the enterprise. Not a joke, sadly.
  • What is the big appeal of blackberry compaired to standard e-mail protocols. I'm not trolling, I just don't know. From what I see it requires exchange and sometime breaks like this. With my Treo 650 I have full access to email via imap, pop3 or exchange. Does blackberry have its own network (like skytel) that has better coverage that the disgital networks of Sprint or Verizon? They has to be something more than the fact that it limits characters to 128 or something.
    • As far as I can tell, RIM do have their own network, and the telecommunications companies are starting up their own equivilant networks as well.

      The major advantage of Blackberry and other "push" mail solutions is the email will appear on the Blackberry as soon as it is pushed to the unit, as opposed to the unit checking the mailbox every X minutes.

      The Blackberry server software is designed to work with Exchange. There are simpler solutions if you only have POP3 mail.

      When Exchange recieves a mail, it pas

  • slightly off topic, but scary (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mottie ( 807927 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @03:50PM (#13883538)
    While "frantically" installing SP3 after reading this article (it's only been out for 7 days or so) I noticed a "silent BCC" option in the BES config. You enter an email address and it automatically bcc's you on every message sent to/from all the Blackberrys. This is rather disturbing, and I can't really see any reason for it. Sure I can always just give myself access to their Exchange Mailbox, but still... disturbing.
    • While "frantically" installing SP3...

      This is rather disturbing, and I can't really see any reason for it. Sure I can always just give myself access to their Exchange Mailbox, but still... disturbing.

      I suppose the presumption is that if you have the necessary admin privileges to install the service pack, you could do whatever you damn well pleased with the machine (and the data passing through it) anyway.

    • Could be usefull for debugging though. And if everything goes through your mail server anyway. Problem is of course *if* you could send it out to your (or someone elses) private email address. Then you could spy without any of your collegues noticing anything. Except for the options in the "silent BCC" setting I suppose :)

      Anyway, I understood the server does automatic backups as well, browsing through their rather nice but sparse information sources.
    • For logging all outgoing email, as per some companies' data retention policies?
    • It's probably so you can CC another of your email accounts when on the road? Or if the blackberry is being loaned or hired, the hiree can get a copy of the mail elsewhere without cc'ing each message.

  • The sooner RIM collapses, the better (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Gunark ( 227527 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2005 @04:03PM (#13883644)
    Honestly I can't wait until this NTP patent infringment thing brings down RIM, releasing the market from the blackberry stranglehold. While the blackberry itself is a decent piece of technology (the J2ME platform is a good thing), RIM's server software is an altogether different beast. Perhaps due to legacy issues, but probably mostly for profit reasons, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software that you MUST have to do anything with the blackberry on the back-end is a giant, proprietary mess. It is deeply dependent on Windows (integrated into the WMI), it does bizzare things to communicate with the blackberry devices (most models don't have their own TCP/IP stack, so all communication must go through the BES's proprietary protocols), the user and device management stuff is really a joke.... I jsut can't say enough bad things about this server software. It just sucks.

    The I.T. world would be a better place if RIM were to collapse, taking their ugly BES with them. What we need is a BlackBerry-like device, with its own TCP stack, a very simple gateway server, using only open protocols (web services would be a really realy good thing, for example). This will not happen as long as RIM is runnign things. The BES is a cash cow for them... a single BES user licenses costs almost as much as the blackberry device itself (with the profit margin on a license being 99%).
    • I'm right there with you. I'm dying to get my hands on a smartphone, but I refuse to deal with any kind of lock-in like that. I keep hoping and searching for Linux-based smartphone/PDAphone. Something like a Zaurus but with a GSM transceiver and a Bluetooth module.

  • ...sent from my blackberry (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Imagine a beowulf of
                                      In soviet russia
    4. Profit!
                  welcome our new blackberry overlords

    ------------
    This message sent from my wireless blackberry
  • Apparently, the BBC has suspended service to all its executives BlackBerrys, because the server software was randomly sending chunks of messages to arbitrary users, thus showing execs each others emails.

    Random is a state of mind: "God does not play dice with the universe."

    One simply doesn't have the necessary information, that's all. Understandably -- many things, to know how they work, you have to read the quantum states of so many elementary particles, it'd make your head spin (and not in a good w
    • "God does not play dice with the universe."

      I would remind you of Stephen Hawking's rejoinder to that famous quip by Einstein:

      God not only plays dice with the universe; he throws them where they can't be seen.

      This is quite germane to the topic at hand: The blackberries' BES server is proprietary software on top of a proprietary MS system. Lots of dice being thrown there every second, and you have no way of seeing a lot of them. The behavior probably isn't random, but as a mere user, that's the sort of beha
      • God not only plays dice with the universe; he throws them where they can't be seen. [Hawking, after Einstein.]

        This is quite germane to the topic at hand: The blackberries' BES server is proprietary software on top of a proprietary MS system. Lots of dice being thrown there every second, and you have no way of seeing a lot of them.

        Right on, this is what I'm talking about. There's usually more going on, about which we have few if any details, but maybe one or two good reasons to be concerned that the

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