Prior to the release of BlackBerry 10, the now current version of BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry devices could be configured to produce password-protected offline backups (*.ipd
or *.bbb
backup files) when connected to an authorized computer running BlackBerry Desktop Software. It is important to note that these backups were only protected with a user-selectable password. Unlike Apple, BlackBerry has not specified the use of any additional hardware-based encryption keys. As a result, successfully recovering a password is all that is needed to decrypt a BlackBerry backup.
BlackBerry backups (OS 1.0 to 7.0) are not password protected/encrypted by default. This option must be enabled by the user within the BlackBerry Desktop Software interface. Unencrypted BlackBerry devices can be also acquired via JTAG (compatible models) or chip-off.