Etisalat is an UAE telecoms firm with over 145,000 users. Recently, it has prompted an update by text. The update was supposedly aimed at improving performance. However, crashes started to appear right after many users downloaded and installed it. Battery life was also significantly reduced. RIM (Research in Motion), the maker of Blackberry, stated that this update was not developed, tested or authorized by them.

RIM stated the following: “Etisalat appears to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance application… independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could then enable unauthorised access to private or confidential information stored on the user’s smartphone”. So the update was just spyware! The motives for this are unknown at this time but investigations are on the way.

Meanwhile, Etisalat called this a “slight technical fault” and stated that the “upgrades were required for service enhancements”. Many users complained about crashes after the update. Some of them even bought new batteries hoping that this would fix the problem. “But my biggest problem is that my phone won’t work. If you call customer service you either can’t get through, or they don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know what to do.”

RIM has released a new update that allows users to remove the spyware application from their devices.