Report: French ministers told to install Android sandbox if they want to use smartphones

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://news.techworld.com/security/3468794/report-french-ministers-told-to-install-android-sandbox-if-they-want-to-use-smartphones/

By Peter Sayer
Techworld.com
13 September 2013

Jean-Marc Ayrault warned government ministers this summer that they and 
their staff should only use approved smartphones to discuss sensitive 
matters, a French magazine has revealed.

For matters classified secret, Ministers and government officials should 
use a feature phone called Teorem from French aerospace and defence 
equipment manufacturer Thales, Ayrault's chief of staff told his 
counterparts in the various ministries in a letter dated Aug. 19 and 
published by the magazine l'Expansion this week.

Teorem is a hybrid device compatible with public landlines and with 2G or 
3G mobile networks. It exchanges keys via a central server in order to 
authenticate itself and encrypt transmissions -- but it can only 
communicate with similarly secured devices, and it won't run apps or 
exchange email. The government has ordered 14,000 Teorem phones, half of 
them for the armed forces, according to Thales.

Not all ministerial discussions are secret, but most should at least be 
considered sensitive, and for those, only landlines or smartphones with a 
security system approved by the French National IT Security Agency (ANSSI) 
should be used, the letter said.

[...]



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