Research In Motion (RIM), creater of the BlackBerry line, has reported a vulnerability which may expose some users to attack by “phishing” hackers. The report indicates that the flaw could allow a hacker to mislead a BlackBerry owner into visiting a malicious website. BlackBerry users caught by the scheme would find themselves at what might appear to be a legitimate site, but it is in fact designed to capture visitor data for malicious purposes.

The phishing link, typically forwarded in emails or IMs, immitates a legitimate BlackBerry website, but contains characters that are hidden. The browser dialog box informs the user when there is a mismatch between the domain names in the target site name and that indicated in the associated certificate, but does not properly illustrate that the mismatch is due to the presence of some hidden characters in the site domain. That is, the site domain and the certificates appear to match because the software does not display the hidden characters. If you see a pop up similar to the one below, you should select “Close connection” in order to eliminate exposure of your data, unless you know exactly what you’re doing (or you’re feeling lucky).

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Here’s how to back up and restore your 3rd party apps on your Blackberry. This should work for PC users with Blackberry Desktop Manager (written for v5.0)… sorry Mac.

Backup
Step 1:
Connect your BlackBerry to your PC and open the BlackBerry Desktop Manager. Click the “Switch Device Wizard” button. On the “switch device dialog box”, click the “Switch BlackBerry Devices” button.

Step 2:
Select your device and make sure the “allow me to select applications….” button is checked. Click “Next”. If you have a password, enter it and continue.

Step 3:
If you just want your apps, check “Third Party Applications” and leave “Include Messages” and “User Data Settings” unchecked. Click the Next button.

Step 4:
Once the operation is complete, do NOT click next or cancel. Search your PC for files and folders with the same name as your BlackBerry PIN. Make sure you search hidden folders as well. You may also type %temp% in the path bar of an explorer window and find the folder that’s named by your PIN.

Step 5:
Copy the folder with your PIN as the name to a safe location. This is your backup.

Step 6:
You may now cancel and close the BlackBerry Desktop Manager. Your backup is complete!

Restoring Your 3rd party Applications
Step 1:
Plug in your BlackBerry to your PC

Step 2:
Launch the “Application Loader” and click the “Add” button

Step 3:
Find your backup file, by default called YOURPIN.alx, where YOURPIN is your PIN. Click Start!

Need more help? Send us an email at help@pcxmedics.com, or use our contact form.