Blackberries insecure?

[Victor Duchovni]

On Wed, Jun 20, 2007 at 11:41:20PM -0400, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:

> According to the AP (which is quoting Le Monde), "French government
> defense experts have advised officials in France's corridors of power
> to stop using BlackBerry, reportedly to avoid snooping by U.S.
> intelligence agencies."
> 
> That's a bit puzzling.  My understanding is that email is encrypted
> from the organization's (Exchange?) server to the receiving Blackberry,
> and that it's not in the clear while in transit or on RIM's servers.
> In fact, I found this text on Blackberry's site:

The key issue is who manages the (not necessarily, but often Exchange)
mail store. Enterprise BlackBerry devices should be safe from external
attacks, consumer BlackBerry devices use servers provisioned elsewhere.

Are the officials using "Corporate" or "Personal" BlackBerry devices?

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