“Three French MPs are proposing a new law which will require the
use of open standards and source code that is ‘accessible to all
public administrations and organisations’ in France.”
“There can be little doubt that the real concern must be
national security, and that the government wants no replay of the
exposé when the Direction Générale de la
Securité Exterieure (DGSE) was caught planting industrial
spies in the European branches of IBM, Texas Instruments and other
US electronics companies.“
“Officials from the FBI and CIA visited the French government to
confront it with evidence that the DGSE had been running a major
espionage programme against foreign business executives since the
late 1960s, intercepting electronic messages and giving information
to Bull.”