Smartphone maker BlackBerry announced on Thursday that the U.S. Defense Information System Agency (DISA) has given its BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones with BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, the “Authority to Operate” (ATO) on Department of Defense (DoD) networks.
BlackBerry is the first Mobile Device Management (MDM) provider to obtain an ATO, the company said.
Launched earlier this year, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 offers mobile device management, mobile application management and secure mobile connectivity, and has already been FIPS 140-2 certified.
“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 at BlackBerry. “With foreign entities – governmental and criminal – ramping up attacks on electronic communications and information systems, BlackBerry provides government agencies with a proven partner that follows top-to-bottom security protocols.”
BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 supports both corporate-owned and personal-owned (BYOD) device deployments and mixed environments of BlackBerry and other devices.
The ATO approval demonstrates that BlackBerry 10 smartphones meet the Defense Department’s security requirements, the company said, noting that BlackBerry 10 smartphones will enable military personnel to securely connect to networks and access assets from work.
According to BlackBerry, DISA is planning to support 10,000 BlackBerry 10 smartphones by this fall and 30,000 by the end of 2013 on DoD networks.