(Crackberry Juice) French Government Blackballs BlackBerry on Espionage Fears

[James M. Atkinson]

The ironic thing is that the French have been eavesdropping on
Blackberries in the United States for years, and they have several
extremely sophisticated interception sites in the DC area, San Jose,
Seattle, Philadelphia, and Boston. One of the reason the French
government is all upset with the United States is that they (the
French) has been intercepting Crackberry traffic for years, along
with Golden Eagle/Nextel phones, plus any phone that uses Qualcomm chips.

Within the article there are a number of claims made by RIM that are
utter and complete horseshit. While the messages are encrypted, it is
a fairly low level encryption that is only suited for frustrating
only amateur eavesdropping, but will do nothing more then amuse a
professional eavesdropping who will have no problem decrypting the message.

Let's all repeat Jim Atkinson's mantra again: "IF IT HAS AN ANTENNA,
IT IS NOT SECURE".

-jma

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/wireless/57966.html

French Government Blackballs BlackBerry on Espionage Fears
By Katherine Noyes
TechNewsWorld
06/21/07 10:56 AM PT

Out of fear that other countries' security agencies would spy on
them, French government security experts have reportedly banned usage
of BlackBerry devices in the country's ministries and presidential
palace. Nevertheless, members of several government departments
reportedly are still using the devices in secret.

Learn more about Microsoft Forefront. It makes defending your systems easier.

French government officials may no longer use BlackBerry devices to
send and receive e-mail, according to the French newspaper Le Monde.

Citing security concerns -- specifically, snooping by the U.S.
National Security Agency (NSA) -- French government security experts
have reportedly banned the ubiquitous devices in ministries and the
presidential palace, Le Monde reported Tuesday.

France's General Secretariat for National Defense issued a similar
warning 18 months ago, according to reports, following a study
carried out by France's head of economic intelligence, Alain Juillet.
The study reportedly indicates that the devices posed a security threat.

Members of several French government departments are still secretly
using the devices, according to reports.

'Misleading Information'
Research In Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) (RIM) BlackBerry devices are
secure, thanks to the encryption used in its network, the company argues.

"Recent news reports, originating in France and rehashing a
two-year-old rumor that speculates that data transmitted over the
BlackBerry Enterprise Solution can be intercepted and read by the NSA
in the U.S. or other 'spy' organizations, are based on false and
misleading information," RIM said.

"No one, including RIM, has the ability to view the content of any
data communication sent using the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution
because all the data is encrypted using 256-bit Advanced Encryption
Standard (AES) encryption, and the origin of the e-mails cannot be
traced or analyzed for content," it added.

Widely Certified
NATO and the UK government have approved the BlackBerry Enterprise
Solution for the wireless transmission of sensitive, restricted data;
security agencies in the United States, Australia, New Zealand,
Austria and Canada have accredited the device; and certification is
under way in the Netherlands and Germany.

Indeed, the British Commons Modernization Committee recently agreed
to recommend allowing for the first time the use of BlackBerry
devices by members of parliament in the Commons chamber. The Commons
must still vote to approve the move.

"I find the security concern curious," Neil Strother, a wireless
analyst with Jupiter Research, told TechNewsWorld. "If RIM's network
were insecure, why would government officials around the world be
using it? This seems more like economic posturing, and an expression
of a certain level of mistrust."

Fear and Dependence
Nevertheless, RIM's well-loved device -- loved so much, in fact, that
it's sometimes referred to as the "CrackBerry," alluding to the
addictive drug -- has been the subject of security concerns before.
In Australia, government staff members are reportedly prohibited from
sending certain types of documents using the device, and French oil
firm Total has also banned the devices.

Yet as the RIM network outage in April made abundantly clear,
corporate users worldwide have become dependent on the technology.

All BlackBerry e-mail messages go through RIM's network operations
centers in Canada, with switching in the United States, Chris
Hazelton, senior analyst for mobile device technology and trends at
IDC Research, told TechNewsWorld.

Scarce Alternatives
"I've never heard of any breaches of the RIM network -- that's why
it's the first choice for enterprise users," Hazelton said. "But
unless you own the network, the wires and the routers, and encrypt
with a standard no one else uses, there's always the possibility."

Meanwhile, in their new, sans-BlackBerry lives, France's government
officials may be hard-pressed to find a comparable solution. "There
just isn't a quick alternative," Hazelton said.

Other offerings in the market will also involve going through other
countries, Strother added: "I'm not aware of any pure-French solution."

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