BlackBerry PlayBook Voted In For U.S. Federal Use

I had heard about this coming. The article I had read a few months back was actually about iPads though. It seems some big companies hopped on the iPad train shortly after introduction for both the 1st one, and for the 2nd edition as well. However; most of that equipment is not actively used by anyone with true network permissions. This is because the Apple products in general will not work in a secure environment. So these were mentioned as coming for companies who wanted security. As a side not it was also noted that many if not all of the companies that bought them on the first round generally could not use them in networks as they would not work generally with the PC security products active in the network. So these and the Motorola pads were both being looked forward to as replacements.

The only thing about the awarding of government contracts for equipment such as this is that you don't know if the device was chosen on it's merits, or if the decision is politically motivated. This is why I wouldn't take this as an endorsement for the Blackberry PlayBook.

The FIPS 140-2 certification is all well and good, but that's a government standard that's open to constant attack, and "Uncle Sugar's" PC's have been compromised before.

Time will tell if this works well for those that are forced to use it. We'll hear plenty from them if it turns out to be a POS. (or otherwise)

FIPS 140-2 just means this thing can legitly support certainly encryption standards.

We have to make sure all of our wireless equipment is FIPS certified which just means it can legitly support AES 256 bit encryption which is what WPA2 is based off of. And currently WPA2 is the most secure wireless standard available.

Just have to see if there is a 140-3 certification for having to pay, carry and charge two devices instead of one (in case federal employees want messaging from this thing).