Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Mobile & Wireless

National Transportation Safety Board Dumps BlackBerry, Chooses iPhone

WASHINGTON – A US government agency has decided to buy iPhones for its employees, dumping its BlackBerry smartphones, citing their unreliability.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a public notice last week it would be contracting with Verizon Wireless for the iPhone 5, saying it is the “only device” that meets the agency’s needs. The iPhones will have an additional benefit of compatibility with Apple iPad tablets used by the agency.

WASHINGTON – A US government agency has decided to buy iPhones for its employees, dumping its BlackBerry smartphones, citing their unreliability.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a public notice last week it would be contracting with Verizon Wireless for the iPhone 5, saying it is the “only device” that meets the agency’s needs. The iPhones will have an additional benefit of compatibility with Apple iPad tablets used by the agency.

The Apple iPhones “will replace the NTSB’s existing BlackBerry devices, which have been failing both at inopportune times and at an unacceptable rate,” the agency said in its notice.

“The NTSB requires effective, reliable and stable communication capabilities to carry out its primary investigative mission and to ensure employee safety in remote locations.”

The announcement is more bad news for Canadian-owned Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry and has been traditionally dominant in US government agencies, but has been losing ground to Apple and to smartphones using the Google-backed Android system.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon ended its exclusive deal with RIM to supply its vast workforce with BlackBerry smartphones.

Another government agency, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also said it was dropping the Blackberry device altogether in favor of Apple’s iPhone.

The US military and intelligence agencies have long preferred the Blackberry due to security concerns and had worried that Apple, Android and other smartphones lacked sufficient safeguards.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

RIM is set to unveil its new BlackBerry 10 platform, aimed at better competing with Apple and others, on January 30.

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Mobile & Wireless

Infonetics Research has shared excerpts from its Mobile Device Security Client Software market size and forecasts report, which tracks enterprise and consumer security client...

Mobile & Wireless

Samsung smartphone users warned about CVE-2023-21492, an ASLR bypass vulnerability exploited in the wild, likely by a spyware vendor.

Malware & Threats

Apple’s cat-and-mouse struggles with zero-day exploits on its flagship iOS platform is showing no signs of slowing down.

Fraud & Identity Theft

A team of researchers has demonstrated a new attack method that affects iPhone owners who use Apple Pay and Visa payment cards. The vulnerabilities...

Mobile & Wireless

Critical security flaws expose Samsung’s Exynos modems to “Internet-to-baseband remote code execution” attacks with no user interaction. Project Zero says an attacker only needs...

Mobile & Wireless

Apple rolled out iOS 16.3 and macOS Ventura 13.2 to cover serious security vulnerabilities.

Mobile & Wireless

Two vulnerabilities in Samsung’s Galaxy Store that could be exploited to install applications or execute JavaScript code by launching a web page.

Mobile & Wireless

Asus patched nine WiFi router security defects, including a highly critical 2018 vulnerability that exposes users to code execution attacks.