BlackBerry’s iOS/Android Security Software Gets U.S. Gov’t Cert

This morning BlackBerry announced that its Secure Work Space for iOS and Android, a component of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) that lets IT administrators separate work and personal data on Apple and Android devices, received the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification. FIPS 140-2 is “issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to coordinate the requirements and standards for certifying cryptographic modules,” according to BlackBerry.

The BlackBerry 10 OS, which includes a similar segmentation tool call BlackBerry Balance, received the same FIPS 140-2 certification in November of 2012, two months before it became available. Today’s news means government agencies and other organizations that require FIPS 140-2 certification for mobile-device security and management products can now use the iOS and Android management component of BES10.

Yesterday I published a conversation I had with Jerry Irvine, CIO of Chicago-based Prescient Solutions and a member of the National Cyber Security Partnership (NCSP), in which Irvine said MDM tools that separate work and personal data will be crucial for CIOs and IT managers to protect themselves from Internet-of-Things-related threats, among other future security risks.

BES10 isn’t the only MDM product that enables secure segmentation of work and personal data on mobile devices, with FIPS 140-2 certification, but its support for BlackBerry, iOS and Android devices sets it apart from many comparable services from other MDM vendors.

Read more about BES10 Secure Work Space for iOS and Android here, and check out the company’s press release one the new FIPS 140-2 certification on BlackBerry.com.

AS