Research In Motion has announced that BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 has been awarded Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4+ (EAL4+) certification. Common Criteria is an international standard for evaluating security products. Widely respected for its extensive and comprehensive evaluation by an independent third party, EAL4+ accreditation examines the design, software development methodology, and security mechanisms of BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

"As a market leader in delivering secure, mobile solutions, RIM is committed to achieving independent, third party approvals and certifications of the BlackBerry security architecture," said Scott Totzke, Vice President, BlackBerry Security Group at RIM. "We are pleased that BlackBerry Enterprise Server is the first mobile platform to have earned this rigorous certification. This achievement is a testament to RIM's ongoing commitment to meet the needs of security-conscious businesses and government organizations."

"Security remains one of the most important considerations when enterprises deploy or expand the use of mobile devices. Regulated industries such as those in the financial, insurance, investments, retail, legal, healthcare, and public sectors cannot afford to deploy anything that could compromise their data/records security or prevent meeting regulatory compliance requirements," said Jack Gold, President and Principal Analyst of J. Gold Associates. "Choosing mobile platforms that have obtained a variety of internationally recognized security certifications is a requirement to enable companies to achieve the highest levels of inherent security and allow them to feel confident about deploying such solutions throughout their organizations."

The Common Criteria is an international standard for validating that IT products meet specific security requirements. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server software has been independently evaluated by a third-party Common Criteria evaluation facility and meets the security criteria for EAL 4+. This evaluation assurance level is accepted under the Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA) by 26 countries including:

- Australia

- Austria

- Canada

- Czech Republic

- Denmark

- Finland

- France

- Germany

- Greece

- Hungary

- India

- Israel

- Italy

- Japan

- Republic of Korea

- Malaysia

- New Zealand

- Netherlands

- Norway

- Pakistan

- Singapore

- Spain

- Sweden

- Turkey

- United Kingdom

- United States

The BlackBerry Enterprise Solution is used by thousands of security-conscious organizations and governments around the world, and has passed rigorous security assessments by many of the leading security institutions around the world.

The BlackBerry Enterprise Solution has been certified by Fraunhofer Institute SIT, and has been approved for use under the CAPS program in the UK. The solution has also had several FIPS-140 validations for its embedded encryption module.

The EAL4+ certification for BlackBerry Enterprise Server is expected to be posted on the Common Criteria Portal later this month (http://www.commoncriteriaportal.org/). BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 is currently being tested and is expected to be awarded EAL4+ certification closer to the time of software availability later this year.