BlackBerry 7 Smartphones now certified for Canadian and U.S. Governments

Good news for RIM today! They’ve just announced that their BlackBerry 7 Smartphones have followed the BlackBerry PlayBook and been given FIPS 140-2 certification by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). The list of certified devices with BlackBerry 7 and BlackBerry 7.1 are the Bold 9900, 9930 and 9790, BlackBerry Torch 9850, 9860 and 9810, and BlackBerry Curve™ 9350, 9360, 9370 and 9380.

So what does this mean for the average user? Well, your device is incredibly secure and all those messages that you don’t want anyone to access will be encrypted. For government employees, like heavy user President Barack Obama, this solidifies RIM as a trust worthy partner “to deploy security-conscious mobile solutions”. Full press release after the break.. congrats RIM!

BlackBerry 7 Smartphones Certified for U.S. and Canadian Governments
BlackBerry 7 and 7.1 OS Achieve FIPS 140-2 Certification

WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Feb. 1, 2012) – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced that BlackBerry® smartphones running on the powerful new BlackBerry® 7 and BlackBerry® 7.1 Operating Systems (OS) have been awarded FIPS 140-2 certification by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 140-2 is recognized by the U.S. and Canadian governments and is required under the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA).

All BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry 7 and BlackBerry 7.1 benefit from this certification, including the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900, 9930 and 9790, BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850, 9860 and 9810, and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350, 9360, 9370 and 9380.

“The FIPS 140-2 certification for BlackBerry 7.0 and 7.1 illustrates RIM’s continuing commitment to providing industry-leading, secure, mobile computing platforms for our customers,” said Scott Totzke, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Security at Research In Motion. “With all of the latest BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook tablet certified under the FIPS program, government and security-conscious customers can deploy our entire range of products with confidence.”

In addition to FIPS 140-2 certification, the BlackBerry 7 OS has received Common Criteria EAL4+ certification (see announcement – November 14, 2011). The BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet has also received FIPS 140-2 validation (see announcement – July 21, 2011).

Source: BlackBerry