Apple's iOS devices to be granted Pentagon security clearance

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. Department of Defense said on Friday, May 10 that it plans to allow Apple's iOS devices onto the Pentagon's secure network early next week, opening the door for lucrative military contracts currently dominated by BlackBerry, AppleInsider says.

Alana Johnson, a spokesperson for the Pentagon’s Defense Information Systems Agency, told Bloomberg that, if approved next week, government-issued devices running Apple's iOS 6 would be granted access to highly secure military networks.

The news comes one week after Apple's smartphone rival Samsung had its Knox-compatible devices cleared for use on DoD systems. That report also noted devices running the latest BlackBerry 10 operating system received certification.

Apple has recently made significant headway in the government sector, and recently saw the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Computer Security Division grant FIPS 140-2 certification to iOS CoreCrypto Kernel Module v3.0, a module found in iOS 6.

While a step in the right direction for Apple, the Pentagon must first build out a mobile device management system in order for iPhone and iPads to proliferate in the secure environment, Johnson said. There is currently no timeline for such a project.