Research In Motion’s upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform has been given a top security certification by the U.S. government before the company’s next-generation devices hit the market.
The company said Thursday that BB10 meets the Federal Information Processing Standard FIPS 140-2 certification, meaning government agencies that want to deploy the new smart phones and BlackBer4ry Enterprise Service 10 can do it as soon as they are released.
RIM has said BB 10 devices will be out some time in the first quarter of next year.
Canadian government departments follow the FIPS standard, as do a number of corporations.
Last month ComputerWorld U.S. reported that more than 17,600 users in U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) are being moved from their BlackBerry devices to Apple’s iPhone.
“Achieving FIPS 140-2 certification means that BlackBerry 10 is ready to meet the strict security requirements of government agencies and enterprises at launch,” Michael Brown, RIM’s vice president of security product management and research said in a statement. “What differentiates BlackBerry is that it integrates end-to-end security, and includes certified encryption algorithms for data at rest and data in transit. No other mobile solution has achieved the level of security accreditation that the BlackBerry solution has.”