WATERLOO, ON – After a disappointing $84 million loss in its first quarter and another round of layoffs last month, BlackBerry was able to announce a bit of good news today, saying it has been granted permission by the U.S. Defense Information System Agency to operate its BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 smartphones on Department of Defense networks.
BlackBerry’s smartphones, along with its BlackBerry Enterprise Service, received an “authority to operate” (ATO) designation, which is an important step in the DoD’s security certification process because it means that the BB10 smartphones meet strict security requirements.
The company said it is the first mobile device management (MDM) provider to receive such a designation.
With the ATO, DISA is now developing the infrastructure to support 10,000 BlackBerry10 smartphones by this fall and 30,000 by the end of 2013 on DoD networks.
“Being the first smartphones to be supported on U.S. Department of Defense networks further establishes BlackBerry’s proven and validated security model,” said Scott Totzke, SVP, BlackBerry security group, in a release.
The company says its BB 10 smartphones will enable DoD personnel to securely connect to networks and access assets from work while ensuring the personal and the corporate information on a user's phone are kept separate and safe.
