French government bans BlackBerries
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The French government suspects server snooping by US and UK intelligence agencies....
The French government has banned the use of BlackBerries in ministries and the presidential palace for fear the highly popular handheld devices are vulnerable to interception by US intelligence, according to reports in France’s left-leaning daily newspaper Le Monde.
Alain Juillet, head of economic intelligence for the French government, told the paper that the risks of interception are “very real” and that snooping by intelligence agencies is a recognised form of “economic war”. BlackBerries present “a problem with the protection of information”, he added.
Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian-headquartered provider of BlackBerry, has servers situated in both the US and the UK. The French government is concerned that US and UK intelligence agencies might snoop inside the servers to access sensitive government information.
RIM has dismissed the suggestion, saying that the US National Security Agency cannot view the content of BlackBerry communicated data, according to a blog posting by Engadget.
Recent incidents in Europe, in particular the three-week long cyber assaults against Baltic state Estonia’s government and privately owned IT networks, have served to heighten awareness among European governments of the risk of information security and information warfare.
Fondly dubbed the ‘CrackBerry’ due to its highly addictive quality, the BlackBerry handheld device garners instant brand-recognition globally, and currently holds nearly 20% of the PDA market share, according to Gartner.
Information Age analysis: Cyber assault and information warfare
