French govt bans BlackBerry citing security risks

by Bharat Suneja

In an interesting twist, the French government has banned members and their advisors from using BlackBerrys, citing security concerns arising from the fact that data flows through servers in the U.K. and N. America. Says InfoWorld, “This concentration of data poses a threat to national security, according to Alain Juillet, senior economic intelligence advisor to the French Prime Minister, because of the risk of data interception”.

Research In Motion, the Canadian BlackBerry-maker and service provider (email sent/received from/to BlackBerry devices flows through RIM’s data centers), disputes that assessment, saying data is encrypted using 256-bit AES encryption – the origin of a message on RIM’s network cannot be traced, the content cannot be analyzed even by RIM.

More details in InfoWorld’s report titled “Update: Security risks prompt French BlackBerry ban“.

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