France News

French officials banned from use of Blackberry devices

Friday, 22 June 2007

French officials banned from use of Blackberry devices

Officials who work for the government in France have been told the use of handheld Blackberry wireless communication devices is no longer allowed due to security risks, reports say.

Employees working in the office of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and those in the prime minister's office have been told their e-mails risk getting spied on, and Jacques Myard of the UMP party, said French politicians needed to know that Blackberry devices were not secure devices.

France's SGDN security service is concerned because Blackberries use US and UK-based servers, the Le Monde newspaper claims.

However, some of the government workers are ignoring the ban and still secretly using their Blackberries.

There are more than seven million people around the world who use the Blackberry device, which is made by Canadian firm Research In Motion (RIM).

RIM responded to the bad press their devices are getting by saying that Blackberry's encryption system was "the most secure wireless data solution available."

RIM also added that the Blackberry had been approved for the transmission of important information by the UK government and by Nato.

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