Friday, 28 September 2007

BlackBerry First Mobile Platform to Achieve Common Criteria Certification

Research In Motion (RIM) has become the first ever mobile platform to be awarded the Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 2 augmented (EAL 2+) validations for its BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry device software.

The Common Criteria is an international standard for validating that IT products meet specific security requirements. The certifications were awarded at the 8th International Common Criteria Conference in Rome.

“RIM is a pioneer and longstanding advocate of wireless security and we are extremely pleased to report that our BlackBerry software has become the first mobile platform to receive the Common Criteria certification" said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM.

"This certification, along with numerous other security accreditations from around the world, further illustrates why so many security conscious organizations and governments have chosen the BlackBerry solution,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM.

In addition to the Common Criteria certifications, RIM also said that the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution has been approved for use under the rigorous CAPS program in the UK and has also had several FIPS-140 validations for its embedded encryption module. The solution has also uniquely been approved for the wireless transmission of sensitive data, up to the RESTRICTED classification, by NATO and the UK government, and is widely used by government agencies within the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Austria and Canada.

The BlackBerry solution is currently used by a wide range of government and public sector workers around the world, including sectors where privacy and security concerns are paramount or mandated such as in the military, law enforcement and healthcare.