EYP: Ministers’ phones open to snooping
The phone conversations of ministers through familiar communication apps are not secure, according to a warning issued by the National Intelligence Service (EYP) to government and top state officials.
Kathimerini understands the warning was sent in a letter last week to government ministers, triggering concern and fueling scenarios regarding what really drove the country’s intelligence agencies to take the initiative.
A well-informed source revealed to Kathimerini that in the letter, EYP briefed government officials that their telephone conversations as well as text messaging through the already known encrypted communication applications should not be considered secure and encrypted. It asks them not to use these applications for sensitive matters relating to government work, urging them to substitute another, less popular application, which has its roots in Switzerland.
The application that EYP has indicated to Greek ministers as secure has been used by members of the Swiss armed forces since as early as January 2022.
In fact, earlier this year a military spokesman had in a public statement linked the initiative to ban the use of all other apps to data security issues. Being the information security authority, EYP is responsible for drafting security policies and protecting state agencies in the field of communications and information.
However, Greece is not the only nation in Europe where state and government officials have been told to avoid popular messaging and communication apps. They were also prohibited from being used by government officials in France on November 22 by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who noted in a document that the apps’ encryption-security had holes.
“These digital tools are not free of defects and therefore cannot guarantee the security of communications and information exchanged through them,” said the document signed by Borne and published last Wednesday by the French news magazine Le Point.
