Is the BlackBerry Firewall Really Necessary?

When you’re in the market for a new BlackBerry is security your number one priority?  Probably not but if you’re one of those people who like to keep your data secure then you should already know about the BlackBerry firewall.  I am willing to bet there are lots of BlackBerry owners who don’t even know the firewall exists.  This is because RIM now ships their phones with the firewall disabled by default but this wasn’t always the case.

Older BlackBerry devices came with the firewall already enabled so at one point or another you knew it was there.  The new firewall settings are due in large part to the BlackBerry becoming more of an everyday smartphone as opposed to just a business one.  RIM has also beefed up the security software and there are now a bunch of new security features.  With that being said, is the BlackBerry firewall even necessary anymore?

As BlackBerry smartphones continue to evolve so will the hackers and they will not stop until they find a way to break into your phone.  The safest way to protect against them is keep your firewall enabled at all times.  This is a no brainer for those of you on the BES because one little intrusion could bring down the whole network.  For the rest of us it’s really a question of how secure you want your BlackBerry to be.

Most people think that the BlackBerry firewall only blocks incoming messages like SMS or MMS texts but in reality it does much more than that.  Even if you have those options turned off the firewall is still running in the background giving you that extra security.  One of the biggest threats to your BlackBerry is third party applications that could potentially inject unwanted spyware into your phone.  This is why the firewall will notify you when you launch a third party app to ask if it’s trusted or not.  It may not be huge deal right now but in the future the firewall will be the only way these attacks are prevented.