BBC: Blackberry ban for French elite

The BBC are reporting on a ban on Blackberry use for French Officials:

“French government officials have been ordered not to use handheld Blackberry devices amid fears that foreigners could spy on them, reports say.

Workers in the French president’s and prime minister’s office have been told their e-mails risk falling into foreign hands, Le Monde newspaper reports.

France’s SGDN security service is worried because Blackberries use US- and UK-based servers, the paper says.”

What I found interesting about this article wasn’t the erroneous security issues but this statement:

“But some officials are flouting the ban and using them in secret, it adds.

“They tried to offer us something else to replace our Blackberries but it doesn’t work,” one unnamed official told the paper.”

This is another example of the strength of User Innovation. These officials are really important people who should be very concerned with security. Their need to communicate is greater than their need to obey by the rules. I’ve witnessed similar behaviour in many organisations; people needing to get things done doing whatever it takes to get it done. If the French security services can’t stop people working outside the defined security envelope what chance to other organisations have.

The thought of all these French officials using these things in secret conjures up all sorts of clandestine images for me. I’m imagining lots of people in dark glasses and overcoats congregating down dark alleys to feed their addiction. Others are sitting next to each other in a public place agreeing the sign for the time when they should surreptitiously leave. Such is their need.