Report: French officials skirt BlackBerry limits

Apparently even dire warnings about the threat of snooping by American spies aren't enough to keep some top French government officials from nursing CrackBerry addictions on the sly.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

According to a report to be published in Wednesday's edition of the French newspaper Le Monde, bureaucrats continue to lament--and in some cases, quietly ignore--a warning dispatched 18 months ago from the head of France's national defense agency. Reissued recently, the notice reportedly bars certain categories of government officials from using their Research in Motion BlackBerries to circulate sensitive government information.

French security officials are still working on finding an alternative tool, but it hasn't been easy, the story said.

Meanwhile, an unnamed member of the prime minister's cabinet admitted that after one failed attempt at replacing the devices with something else, certain people have opted to continue using the smartphones "in secret." A secretary to one cabinet minister griped that it has become necessary for officials to "relearn" how to cope with older technologies.

Alain Juillet, a senior official in charge of economic intelligence for the French government, justified the plan by saying the BlackBerry poses "a problem of data security."

The rules came about because some of the main BlackBerry mail servers reside in the United States, where French security officials fear the messages are vulnerable to being swept up and perused by none other than the National Security Agency, according to the Le Monde report.

"The risks of interception are real," Juillet was quoted as saying.

Restrictions on BlackBerry use aren't unique to France. The Australian government also prohibits agencies from using the devices to transmit confidential, secret or top secret information--or with systems that involve such categories of data.

[njondet]

Former bankers, lawyers still on crackberry

The interdiction to use the Blackberry has been particularly problematic for some of the newcomers in the French administration. People with a business background, especially former bankers and lawyers, find it hard to operate without their favorite device. It will be interesting to see how the French government will manage to balance efficient and modern administration with national security. Hopefully, it won't embark on a "French Blackberry" project.

[Danisoid]

Patriot Act Beauty :(

Guess What!
The patriot act has provisions that allow the US Government to tap into any servers that reside on the US Soil for the sake of terrorism investigation. The frogs and others have no privacy with the Blackberry.

[Kant Lavar]

Not that unusual...

The fact that foriegn governments don't use BlackBerries to transmit classified information is hardly unusual - Hollywood aside, the US government doesn't use BlackBerries to manage classified information of any sort. So the fact that the French and the Australians have concerns about the security of them is not unusual. That the French has said certian government officials can't use them period, however, is.