Nokia Extorted For Millions Over Stolen Encryption Keys 89
jppiiroinen writes: At the end of 2007, when Nokia still had huge market share with Symbian devices, they failed to disclose that somebody had stolen their encryption keys and extorted them for millions of Euros. The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation has not been able to figure out who did it. "The blackmailer had gotten hold of the Symbian encryption key used for signing. The code is a few kilobytes in size. Had the key been leaked, Nokia would not have been able to ensure that the phones accept only applications approved by the company."
Needs more Spy Thrilling (Score:4, Insightful)
The money was left in a bag at a parking lot nearby Särkänniemi amusement park. Then things went wrong. The blackmailer took the bag. Police, however, lost track of the blackmailer and the money was gone.
What, no GPS transmitter in the filament of each paper Euro? Amateurs.
Feature or bug? (Score:3, Insightful)
Nokia would not have been able to ensure that the phones accept only applications approved by the company.
Sounds more like a feature than a bug. Do device "owners" really want phones that "accept only applications approved by the company".
Re:Feature or bug? (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course they do. You may not have heard of it, but there's a device called an iPhone that's tremendously popular, and this feature is one of the reasons.
Locked down devices are not for me, but one would have to really have their head in the sand to not notice that safer to use devices are popular with many, many people.