AFP - After revealing the existence of the phone numbers of French President Emmanuel Macron on the list of potential goals of the spy program "Begasos", experts indicate that the safety level depends on the mobile devices used, some of which are flaws.
What phones are available to the French president?
The General Secretariat of Defense and National Security (SGDSN), specifically the Secret Information Systems Management Authority between the ministries, shall provide communication means for the executive authority (President of the Republic and the Government), whether to use them in phone calls or when exchange of data.
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The Secret Information Systems Management Authority between ministries also provides means of communication safely with other governments and officials in the executive authorities.
Experts in digital security explain that the phones placed within the reach of the members of the executive authority are not easy or easy to use, and this justifies the tendency of some to use their personal phones to make communications that should not pass in principle through this communication channel..
Which phones are practically used and are they sufficiently safe?
Macron has many personal smartphones that are done according to a source close to the executive authority "changing, updating and securing them regularly".
A security source explains that the safety settings of the phones are "restricted to the maximum extent possible, and that the download of applications is disabled as well as downloading them remotely".
في هذه الصورة التي التقطت في 17 نوفمبر 2017 ، الرئيس الفرنسي إيمانويل ماكرون يحمل هاتفه المحمول أثناء حديثه مع رئيس وزراء سلوفاكيا خلال القمة الاجتماعية الأوروبية في غوتنبرغ ، السويد. (Ludovic MARIN / AFP)Among those phones is the Tiram, the French Technology Tallis Group.The intense device allows the security authorities to exchange confidential information even at the level of defensive secrets.
A spokesman for the French manufacturer of France Presse explains:.
The company provides phones for the French authorities since 2012, and there are nearly five thousand devices currently under use, according to the same source..
Do encoded messaging applications provide maximum safety scores?
Cracks applications similar to the Signal and Telegrans allow the encryption of the communication channel, since the message was sent from the sent phone until it was received on the recipient phone.With the use of these applications, it is no longer possible to hear conversations by connecting to the phone network.
On the other hand, at the moment of writing and reading the letter, spy programs, like Pegasos, can see what appears on the screen.
موقع تطبيق تلغرام للمراسلة يظهر على شاشة كمبيوتر في موسكو، روسيا. (AP / Alexander Zemlianichenko)"There is certainly a moment when the message is not encrypted until the users can read it..
"In the event that the spy program is on the device, it can read the screen once the message appears," he says..
Who monitors the security of the French President's contacts?
There are several levels of confidentiality designed according to the nature of the communication made by the head of state and ministers.
For information classified as defensive secrets, executive officials use the Talis Tallis devices, while more normal phones are used to trade in daily state affairs..
These phones are provided and their security is guaranteed through the information departments in the ministries, according to Billoa.However, the use of the lowest devices requires "awareness (the risks of espionage) from the state digital security teams".
He explains that before every meeting, the president and the ministers must leave their phones in specific box.
"If you want to have a secret discussion, you have to put your phone in the Faradai cage (a container or a cylinder that isolates what is inside it from the electromagnetic effects), or leave it away50 meters ».
Has the heads of other countries spied?
In 2013, the former contractor with the US National Security Agency, Edward Snowden, revealed thousands of secret documents that exposed widespread American spying after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The documents showed that several officials, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, were under observation.
توضيحية: اختراق هاتف. (Ali Kerem Yücel/iStockPhoto)In June 2015, documents published by WikiLeaks revealed that the American intelligence services spied on three French presidents, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, for several years.
In the spring of 2021, the Danish Public Broadcasting Corporation, in cooperation with many other European media, revealed that the US National Security Agency listened to the Danish underwater internet cables from 2012 to 2014 to spy on senior politicians in Germany, Sweden, Norway and France.
