Research In Motion on Thursday announced that its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has become the first tablet device to be certified for use by the U.S. government. The company’s slate has received FIPS 140-2 certification according to RIM, and it is currently the only media tablet to have been awarded this certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology at this point. FIPS certification is required in order for a device to be considered for use by the U.S. government. “RIM is pleased to announce that the BlackBerry PlayBook is the first tablet approved under FIPS for use within the U.S. federal government,” said RIM’s Senior Vice President of Security Scott Totzke in a statement. “This certification demonstrates our continued commitment to meeting the needs of security-conscious organizations and enables the U.S. federal government to buy with confidence knowing that the PlayBook meets their computing policy requirements for protecting sensitive information.” RIM’s full press release follows below.

BlackBerry PlayBook Becomes First Tablet Certified for U.S. Government

BlackBerry PlayBook Wins ‘Best in Show’ Award at FOSE 2011

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) announced today that it has received FIPS 140-2 certification for the new BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, making the BlackBerry PlayBook the first tablet certified for deployment within U.S. federal government agencies. No other tablet on the market has gained FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is required under the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA).

“RIM is pleased to announce that the BlackBerry PlayBook is the first tablet approved under FIPS for use within the U.S. federal government,” said Scott Totzke, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Security at Research In Motion. “This certification demonstrates our continued commitment to meeting the needs of security-conscious organizations and enables the U.S. federal government to buy with confidence knowing that the PlayBook meets their computing policy requirements for protecting sensitive information.”

BlackBerry PlayBook is a powerful, ultra-portable tablet that fits comfortably in one hand. It has a stunning 7-inch high resolution display, offers true multi-tasking capabilities and a high-fidelity web experience. It also allows for secure pairing with BlackBerry® smartphones via the BlackBerry® Bridge™ app, which enables users to access their BlackBerry smartphone’s email, calendar, address book, memo pad, task list, BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger) and browsing functionality using the larger display on the tablet.

The FIPS-certified BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is being showcased this week in Washington DC at FOSE – the largest Federal government information technology conference in the U.S. – where BlackBerry PlayBook has just been awarded Best in Show, and also Best of FOSE in the Handheld Devices category.

More information about the BlackBerry PlayBook is available at www.blackberry.com/playbook.

The Guardian has posted the full text of what is reportedly a LulzSec IRC chat room log from May 31st to June 4th. LulzSec — the notorious hacking group responsible for recent attacks on Sony, the CIA’s website, and the U.S. Senate — has fired back claiming that the room’s sole purpose is for recruiting new members. The Guardian reported that LulzSec’s members include hackers “Kayla,” “Topiary” — who runs the group’s Twitter feed and writers the press releases — and “Sabu,” who services as the group’s father figure and mastermind. The chat log, from a room called #pure-elite, is filled with text from other IRC users including “jopie91,” “Neuron,” “Storm,” “trollpoll,” and “voodoo,” but LulzSec’s press release said that those users just “hang out” with the group and aren’t involved with LulzSec. The IRC conversations run the gamut from comedic content to serious warnings. In one instance, the group’s alleged leader Sabu issued a command: “You realise we smacked the FBI today. This means everyone in here must remain extremely secure.” LulzSec affirmed that it’s still operating at full strength and added: “The Lulz Boat sails stronger than ever, nice try though. We are too sexy to be sunk, hacking continues as usual, u mad bros?” Read on for the full press release from LulzSec.

Dear Internets,

Herro! Recently some of you may have seen “LulzSec exposed” logs floating around. We’d like the time to say this: LOL. Those logs are primarily from a channel called #pure-elite, which is /not/ the LulzSec core chatting channel. #pure-elite is where we gather potential backup/subcrew research and development battle fleet members, i.e. we were using that channel only to recruit talent for side-operations.

Note that people such as joepie91/Neuron/Storm/trollpoll/voodoo are not involved with LulzSec, they just hang out with us in that channel. Also, “ev0″, who was allegedly arrested (?) was never a part of LulzSec or in fact the subcrew. We don’t even know who he is.

Despite the fact that we’re laughing heartily right now, we do take care of our subcrew, and as such the person who leaked those logs (m_nerva) has been completely hacked inside and out. We have all his online accounts, all his personal information, all the illegal things he’s done on record. We destroyed him so hard that he sat there apologizing to us all night on IRC for what he did. His mother probably spanked him after we wrecked his home connection. Uh-oh, m_nerva!

Our core chatting channel remains unaffected. Our core LulzSec team is at full strength. The Lulz Boat sails stronger than ever, nice try though.

TL;DR we are too sexy to be sunk, hacking continues as usual, u mad bros?

http://lulzsecurity.com/

twitter.com/LulzSec

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New details emerged recently in the battle between Microsoft, Google, and the U.S. government’s choice of default software. Here’s the rub: Google filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in November 2010 alleging that the Department of Interior didn’t give its Google Apps Premier a fair shake before choosing to use Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite-Federal for all of its employees. That’s the tip of the iceberg, as the story gets a bit more complicated. See, in order for the software to be certified for government use, it needs to get a FISMA stamp from the General Services Administration (GSA). Google Apps Premier was certified in June 2010, but it appears that a subset “Google Apps for Government,” — introduced later — has yet to receive that certification. According to Business Insider, Google assumed that since its Google Apps for Government product was more secure the original FISMA certificate would fit the bill. Technically, it sounds like that alone is reason enough for the government to choose Microsoft’s suite, making Google’s entire lawsuit moot. But we’re sure we’ll hear more from the Google defense. Hit the jump for a testimony from the GSA’s David McClure while speaking to U.S. Senator Tom Carper.

CARPER: According to press reports the Department of Justice notified Google in December of 2010 that its Apps for Government was not in fact FISMA compliant. To help provide some greater clarity on this issue, I’d like to ask both of you if you would to comment on these recent reports and discuss how OMB and GSA are addressing the concerns that are raised by them.

MCCLURE (GSA): Sure, I’d be glad to bring some clarity to it. In July 2010, GSA did a FISMA security accreditation for “Google Apps Premier.” That’s what the Google product was called, and it passed our FISMA accreditation process. We actually did that so other agencies could use the Google product. If we do one accreditation, it’s leveraged across many agencies. Since that time, Google has introduced what they’re calling “Google Apps for Government.” It’s a subset of Google Apps Premier, and as soon as we found out about that, as with all the other agencies, we have what you would normally do when a product changes, you have to re-certify it.  So that’s what we’re doing right now, we’re actually going through a re-certification based on those changes that Google has announced with the “Apps for Government” product offering.

It seems there are some benefits to working for the man. In 2004, a company then known simply as Nextel began investigating whether they could assess ETF’s to government contracts that ended before their pre-determined termination date. At the time, Nextel’s VP of marketing issued a public statement hypothesizing that “the government will never, never accept such penalty amounts”. Uh, ok. After a lengthy process, Sprint-Nextel has now, according to the Associated Press, “ultimately decided against charging the fees to the government even though it charges the same fees to consumers and businesses.” Great. No justification for the selective treatment was given, but perhaps Sprint executives now enjoy diplomatic immunity in the Baltic region. No word on whether other telecom companies harbor similarly shady policies, but we wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case across the board. 

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