BlackBerry, a threat to French state secrets

Addictive. Invasive. Wonderful. Essential. And now: a threat to the French government.

French government defense experts have warned the use of BlackBerrys in France’s corridor of power to avoid snooping by the U.S. government intelligence agencies. The French swears that it’s not a lack of trust that have caused this alarm, but the reality of an economic war that is in play.

Emails sent through “Le BlackBerry” have to pass through servers in the United States and Britain and France fears that the system is vulnerable to foul play. RIM, the company who makes BlackBerrys, however, denies it. BlackBerrys pose a “problem with the protection of information” and “the risks of interception are real” says Alain Julliet, who is over economic intelligence for the government, to Le Monde, the French newspaper who broke the story.

In all actuality, emails sent through BlackBerry are more heavily encrypted than online banking sites and cannot be read by NSA or any other organizations, says Research In Motion.

Read [AP]