BlackBerry launches spy-proof tablet

BLACKBERRY has introduced a tablet computer aimed at government and corporate customers that it says can let users access consumer applications such as YouTube and WhatsApp while keeping confidential work-related information away from spies and criminals.

The SecuTABLET, shown at the CeBIT conference in Hanover, Germany, is based on Samsung Electronics’ Tab S 10.5 and uses International Business Machines software to wrap applications that hold secrets into a virtual container where they cannot be harmed by malware.

Germany’s computer-security watchdog was certifying the device for classified government communication, BlackBerry’s Secusmart unit said on Saturday.

BlackBerry acquired Secusmart last year in an effort to win more business from customers demanding rigorous data security. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company, which sold few of its own 2011 Playbook tablets, is shifting from making hardware to building security components and software into competitors’ devices as the frequency of cyber attacks mounts.

The tablet integrates BlackBerry’s technology with one of its main competitors in the mobile-device market. When IBM and Apple signed a deal to collaborate on mobile business applications last July, BlackBerry’s stock dropped 12 percent.

“We do recognise that people actually have a personal life and a business life,” said Lee Epting, the head of Samsung’s European corporate-customer business. “We need to be able to easily transfer between those two worlds.”

The tension between maintaining personal privacy while still letting employers secure phones has been in the spotlight recently with former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s use of a single device and a home-based server for both her government work and private communications.

A poll by IBM showed that 63 percent of all officials need access to specific software such as for finances and controlling on their mobile devices. However, many government officials and executives have resisted the use of so-called crypto-phones as they tend to limit what users can do with them. For instance, making a secure call requires both sides to have the necessary technology installed, and many programmes are not allowed to run on them because they may pose a point of entry for viruses or snooping software. – Bloomberg