Have you installed a special "performance enhancing" patch from Etisalat on your Blackberry..
"Dear Etisalat BlackBerry Customer, Etisalat is always keen to provide you with the best BlackBerry service and ultimate experience, for that we will be sending you a performance enhancement patch that you need to install on your device. For more information, please call 101 Empower your Business with BlackBerry® and Mobile Solutions from Etisalat"
It turns out this patch is spyware that sends copies of your messages to their server.
Unfortunately for them, the patch has been causing huge battery drainage issues and people started to investigate.
Download JL_Cmder JL_Cmder Javaloader Utility Connect the handheld to your computer by USB Go to the folder where Javaloader.exe is installed (e.g. CProgram Files\JL_Cmder) Type the following command: javaloader -u erase -f Registration.cod
Restart your handheld. And you're done. If your handheld is using a password you can type it like this: javaloader -u -wPasswordHere -f Registration.cod
On a slightly separate note is Skype now working properly in the UAE? Im moving to AUH soon and really could do with knowing. Thanks
Nope. Remember to download before U come to Etisl@t land a reliable cheap VPN. This Morons get every VPN page blocked and sometimes even the VPN connection.
The Blackberry update has been confirmed as Spyware!
From Gulfnews....
Quote:
Etisalat's BlackBerry update intercepts communication, says RIM
By Abbas Al Lawati, Staff Reporter Published: July 21, 2009, 13:32
Dubai: The update issued by etisalat to its BlackBerry subscribers on July 8 is not designed to enhance performance but intercept communications, Research in Motion, BlackBerry's parent company has said.
An update etisalat termed as a "performance enhancing patch" that was issued earlier this month led to excessive battery drainage in BlackBerry phones, which experts attributed to a communications interception software pushed on to subscribers' devices by the operator.
In an eight page "customer update", the Canada based company rejected etisalat's assertion that the update was intended to enhance performance on the BlackBerry network.
Click here to download the Blackberry removal patch
"Etisalat appears to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance application that was designed and developed by SS8… independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could then enable unauthorized access to private or confidential information stored on the user's smartphone," the statement read.
"RIM confirms that this software is not a patch and it is not a RIM authorized upgrade," it said.
In a statement issued last week Etisalat said that the update was intended to facililitate the "handover between 2G and 3G networks".
RIM said that such third party patches "cannot provide any enhancements to network services as there is no capability for third parties to…make such improvements to the communications between a BlackBerry smartphone and a carrier's (etisalat's) network".
Etisalat has 145,000 BlackBerry subscribers. It has not commented on RIM's statement.
Hey guys, I have changed registration set up on my phone,and the draining battery problem is gone for the past 4 days now. Follow these steps:- 1. Options 2. Advance Options 3. Applications 4. Press Menu and choose Modules 5. Scroll down the long list until you reach "REGISTRATION" 6. Press Menu and choose edit permissions. 7. Choose deny for all three choices. 8. The phone will restart and that will be the end of the battery drainer. Good Luck and Have sweaty summer Mishkaki
Oh great, I hope this isn't going to give the other gulf nations an idea. They can once again re-justify their "intelligence" jobs and spend countless hours blocking useless information.
Just a reminder that it is standard practice for Etisalat to monitor telecoms here. A local friend and in no way a clown, is aware that our friendly "International Airline of the UAE" is currently "Very Active" in requesting telephone intercepts from Etisalat and DU of employees telephone calls and emails with the assistance of the ESVP who likes to show Captains his revolver during a meeting !
A suggestion, don't use ETISALAT or DU email addresses, always use a secure email https:, and be careful what you say on the telephone and don't mention the Al "N's" or Al "Mkts".
Most know, but some of the new guys are yet to work out that this is a police state.
The block on skype and VPN is as much about security paranoia as it is cash.
eklawyer, this is frightening. Is this urban legend or do you know of someone being called in for tea and biscuits based on something "overheard" on the telephone or an email that was read. If a UAE international airline is going to etisalat or du and requesting and getting copies of our e mail and listening to our conversations and using it against us, this is grossly different than the government listening for the taliban or al queda cells in deira.
Its what I was told by a local guy who I have known for a long time, I have no reason to doubt him but who knows? I have heard and been told all sorts in this city over the years and most turns out to be BS.
If we just had some guys fired for taking a photo, I truly believe anything is possible.
Remember, your home number and company mobile are paid for by your employer, they can do as they like it is an EK line ? With cameras and mics being added everywhere at EGHQ and the training centre, they certainly seem to like surveillance.
As in quite a few 'free, Western' countries, Etisalat (or probably more accurately, the Dubai CID) have a program (Echelon?) that can monitor many phone conversations at once (and I assume, emails) and pick up key words (like 'b*mb, Isr*el etc). Once picked up, it latches on to that conversation and tapes it or future conversations on that number.
As I said, this is not peculiar to the UAE. Victorian police (Australia) quite recently prosecuted a man after 'accidentally' stumbling upon telephone converstions between him and his mistress planning to murder his wife, apparently in graphic detail. I think we could safely assume the Vic. police surveillance program automatically latched on to a succession of pre-programmed inappropriate words and alerted the humans to listen in to future conversations. I believe the man received a relatively hefty gaol sentence.
Wiley it's pointless making a comparison to a country like Australia as it's a democratic nation with an interdependent judiciary.
The technology is used to stop legitimate and serious crime. They're not going to bang you up in prison for being critical of the Govt, or for "insulting" the PM.
Definately use the RIM Removal Tool through your Blackberry Desktop Manager application provided at this link:
Removal of Etisalat Surveillance Software patch
Thanks RIM
Guys, thanks very much for posting this fix. I applied it and now my trusty BB is back to normal. My phone is quite old and I had just assumed that I was going to have to buy a new one. I can't believe that I was going to toss a perfectly fine unit because Etisislut suckered me into installing dodgy software.
Even after all my years in the UAE, this is a bit of a shocker to me.
Blackberry Patch
Removal of Spyware Patch
Found a Solution
Program Files\JL_Cmder)
No HighJacking
Thanks RIM 
Linear Mode
