BlackBerry blog hacked with riot-related threats

RIM’s Inside BlackBerry blog was just hacked some few hours ago after the company declared it would cooperate with UK Police to help bring individuals involved in the London riots to justice.

Although RIM really acted fast in removing the annoying blog post, I have embedded the page for you to view. Click the image to enlarge it.

Yesterday, the Canadian smartphone giant said it had engaged with the authorities and would local communications operators, police authorities and regulatory officials, issuing the following statement:

We feel for those impacted by this weekend’s riots in London. We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can. As in all markets around the world Where BlackBerry is available, we cooperate with local telecommunications operators, law enforcement and regulatory officials. Similar to other technology providers in the UK we comply with The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and co-operate fully with the Home Office and UK police forces.

The blog section of the BlackBerry website was defaced by hacking crew TeaMp0isoN, which proceeded to boast about the attack on Twitter. "No Blackberry you will NOT assist the police," it said.

The defacement itself (archived by Zone-h here) contains a manifesto by the group, threatening the release of sensitive corporate directories supposedly stolen from the site if RIM carries through its promise to help the police.

BlackBerry Messenger service has reportedly become the communication medium of choice for rioters and arsonists who have attacked business across London and beyond in three successive nights since violence flared in the aftermath of peaceful protests in Tottenham on Saturday. TeaMp0isoN has threatened RIM that the addresses and names of RIM employees that TeaMp0isoN supposedly holds will be passed on to rioters if RIM assists the authorities.

Dear RIM,

You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all, the Police are looking to arrest as many people as possible to save themselves from embarrassment…. if you do assist the police by giving them chat logs, gps locations, customer information & access to peoples BlackBerryMessengers you will regret it, we have access to your database which includes your employees information; e.g – Addresses, Names, Phone Numbers etc. – now if u assist the police, we _WILL_ make this information public and pass it onto rioters…. do you really want a bunch of angry youths on your employees doorsteps? Think about it…. and don’t think that the police will protect your employees, the police can’t protect themselves let alone protect others….. if you make the wrong choice your database will be made public, save yourself the embarrassment and make the right choice. don’t be a puppet..

p.s – we do not condone in innocent people being attacked in these riots nor do we condone in small businesses being looted, but we are all for the rioters that are engaging in attacks on the police and government…. and before anyone says “the blackberry employees are innocent” no they are not! They are the ones that would be assisting the police.

The defacement itself looks like a standard run-of-the-mill hack and there's nothing to suggest, on the face of it at least, that TeaMp0isoN actually obtained access to corporate directory databases. Even if it did, RIM would doubtless stick to its previous promises to help authorities in any way it could.

TeaMp0isoN was previously best known for defacing the website of the far right English Defence League back in February.

Image credit: @jhfisher