French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has banned ministers and their teams from using the widely used messaging apps WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal because of security risks, citing a report by French news outlet Le Point, on Thursday, the 30th of November, reports Politico.
The document, dated the 22nd of November, states that these digital tools have security flaws and cannot guarantee the security of conversations and information. Borne ordered the government to switch to using Olvid, an app certified by French cybersecurity watchdog ANSSI, by the 8th of December.
French Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed on the platform X (formerly Twitter) that
by December the Olvid app will be used by the whole government,
with his team using it from July 2022.
The secure messaging app Tchap, developed by the government, is also allowed. This follows an earlier order for civil servants to remove various social media, gaming, and video streaming apps from work devices for cybersecurity and privacy reasons.
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