FAQ: Are BlackBerry Devices Affected by Viruses, Trojans, or Other Malware?
 

At the time of this writing, BlackBerry devices are not and never have been affected by any form of malware. This includes viruses, trojans and other sorts of applications that negatively affect a system's performance.

The fact of the matter is that malware is written to affect the largest user base as possible, and that is Microsoft Windows-based personal computers. BlackBerry OS is Sun Java-based, and is therefore not affected by malware written for Microsoft Windows. Further, the BlackBerry OS is arguably the most secure mobile computing platforms in the world. This, coupled with the fact the OS is proprietary and runs only on Research in Motion brand BlackBerry devices (BlackBerry Connect is an application for other platforms, and is not an OS), makes BlackBerry devices a very unatrractive target. Obviously this could change in the future, but it is highly unlikely.

Thank you. Very timely indeed, and I have quoted you in an evaluation of a user's issue.

I just had a user come to me this morning insisting his wife's BB was infected, as he had just received an email from her "cell phone email" that she had not sent. After further investigation, I pointed out that this email originated from a Yahoo account, and advised user to change password, check for new rules, etc. Since she only uses that email address on the mobile device, they both assumed that it originated from same.

It probably originated from neither. I have SHEDLOADS of spam sent out in my name, because a lot of my email accounts are very established addresses. None of the accounts are/have been compromised, spammers just like faking the "from" field using real addresses, and I reckon I am on every spammer list going.

Nice post.

Very nice post.. Hope it gets added to the FAQ site!

I'm surprised no one wrote this sooner :)

thanks dc, well written and super informative.

Great post. Should be stickied. I'm sure most people ask this question but don't really know the answer to it.

If it were mal-ware possess-able, the BB would not have gotten this far into the market share...

maybee you all didn't see this....
 

type in http before this link topnews.us/content/24133-new-variant-facebook-worm-koobface-navigating-across-other-networking-sites

New variant of Facebook worm Koobface navigating across other networking sites

Which, of course, doesn't impact the BlackBerry at all.

or this one :
<type in http www>.kb.cert.org/CERT_WEB/services/vul-notes.nsf/0/15393e1889738703852570e8002bdbfa?OpenDocument

or this one
kb.cert.org/CERT_WEB/services/vul-notes.nsf/0/07f3a31686b85e40852572d500662962?OpenDocument

or this one
kb.cert.org/CERT_WEB/services/vul-notes.nsf/0/907b43dab47313868525759a00771622?OpenDocument

or these four:
kb.cert.org/vuls/byid%3fsearchview%26query=rim_blackberry_fx_dec_20 06

or the trojan horse : <J2ME/RedBrowser.a Trojan horse

<http> <www> blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB04 916&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_SUPPORTISSUE_1_1&dialog ID=117220591&stateId=1%200%20118570223

we get it.
stop.

don't get me wrong... I love the bb.
I just had to comment because the previous poster said "they are no worms or viruses"..... yeah but.... that doesn't mean that there are no system vulnerabilities.

There are /far fewer/ than on any other mobile device, that why I have one, but you do need to keep your system up2date with patches.
<http> na.blackberry.com/eng/services/personal/updating.jsp#tab_tab_smart

sorry, new user.... the /rules/ say I can't post a full url until after I have posted 10 times, so I broke up what would otherwise be one post into many. sorry for the spam.

And there are STILL no worms or viruses that attack the BlackBerry operating system.
The link you put in has NOTHING to do with vulnerabilities, attacks, denials of service. It is for newer versions of the handheld OS.

anubiz, maybe you were referring to this?

Vulnerabilities in the PDF distiller of the BlackBerry Attachment Service for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server
View Document

That did not affect BlackBerry handsets and RIM has been very quick to fix any vulnerabilities found. The fact remains that there have not been any exploits, trojans, viruses, worms, or any malware that would run on a BlackBerry device.