SafeUM
Home Blog Services Download Help About Recharge

Axarhöfði 14, 110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015
SafeUM
Blog
Services
Download
Help
About
Recharge
Menu
Archive
TOP Security!
12 Sep 2016

Pokemon Go on army’s radar prompts French anti-intrusion tactics

The French army’s list of potential threats just added an unlikely candidate: Pokemon Go.

The virtual monsters of the Pokemon Go mobile game could lead to intrusions into army bases and even threaten national security, France’s defense ministry said in an internal memo.

The military is enforcing a ban on the game, which was developed by Niantic Inc. and mixes augmented reality with digital creatures, to stop staff from unknowingly sharing sensitive data like geographic coordinates or photos. "Our nation’s defense isn’t a game," said Valerie Lecasble, a spokeswoman for the ministry during a phone interview. "There’s no way we’ll allow any form of inappropriate access to points of vital importance or priority installations of France’s defense."

Defense companies with French operations have followed suit. Plane-maker Airbus Group SE issued an internal reminder about forbidden photo or video recordings and highlighted the security risks posed to people, information and installations after it caught employees playing Pokemon Go at work this summer. Safran SA also banned the game.

France isn’t the first country to restrict the Pokemon Go playground, with Indonesia taking one of the tougher stances. Still, the game has been a primary target of the French national police which has tweeted and posted digital road signs on highways to warn citizens not to play while driving. French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem separately said she will ask the game’s makers to delete the most sought-after characters from inside the country’s 63,600 schools.

The latest wave of criticism on the placement of some of the game’s interest points came this week when local newspapers reported that a virtual fighting arena is situated at the Bataclan, the Parisian concert hall where a terrorist attack took place in November.

Since its debut in July, the game has spurred a global phenomenon, climbing to almost 45 million daily users at its peak, according to researcher Apptopia. Shares of Nintendo Co., the creator of the Pokemon franchise whose 32 percent-owned Pokemon Co. collaborated on the title, have surged and fallen on the back of user data and alliances with partners around the game, including SoftBank Group. Pokemon Go was fourth on Apple’s application downloads ranking in France on Wednesday, and first on the Google Play most popular games section for French consumers.

While no incident has been reported so far in the French military, the French Army authorities are taking steps to avoid potential hazards linked to Pokemon Go, Lecasble said. That includes asking employees not to play the game on the job, and pay extra attention to fending off external people approaching military sites to catch digital creatures. Representatives of Niantic didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tags:
surveillance France information leaks
Source:
Bloomberg
2239
Other NEWS
3 Jul 2020 safeum news imgage An encrypted messaging service has been infiltrated by police
4 May 2020 safeum news imgage Two-Factor Authentication ​What Is It and Why You Should Use It
12 Dec 2019 safeum news imgage Encryption is under threat - this is how it affects you
4 Nov 2019 safeum news imgage Should Big Decisions Be Based on Data or Your Intuition?
7 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage VPNFilter malware infecting 500,000 devices is worse than we thought
4 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Hackers target Booking.com in criminal bid to steal hundreds of thousands from customers
1 Jun 2018 safeum news imgage Operator of World's Top Internet Hub Sues German Spy Agency
30 May 2018 safeum news imgage US says North Korea behind malware attacks
29 May 2018 safeum news imgage Facebook and Google targeted as first GDPR complaints filed
25 May 2018 safeum news imgage A new reason to not buy these cheap Android devices
24 May 2018 safeum news imgage Flaws in smart pet devices, apps could come back to bite owners
23 May 2018 safeum news imgage Google sued for 'clandestine tracking' of 4.4m UK iPhone users' browsing data
21 May 2018 safeum news imgage LocationSmart reportedly leaked phone location data onto the web
18 May 2018 safeum news imgage The SEC created its own scammy ICO to teach investors a lesson
17 May 2018 safeum news imgage Thieves suck millions out of Mexican banks in transfer heist
All news
SafeUM
Confidential Terms of Use Our technologies Company
Follow us
Download
SafeUM © Safe Universal Messenger

Axarhöfði 14,
110 Reykjavik, Iceland

Iceland - 2015