The manufacturer of BlackBerry smartphones has assured the French government that their products are not vulnerable to espionage.

Canadian phone maker RIM said after France's national defense agency banned many government officials from using the devices for sensitive government purposes that the communications are protected by sophisticated encryption codes that would take billions of years to crack, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

French security officials had expressed concern that communications sent via BlackBerry could be intercepted by the U.S. National Security Agency or other foreign agencies, as the phones use mail servers located in the United States, Cnet News.com reported.

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