BlackBerry gets U.S. government clearance for email software

BlackBerry Ltd said it received security clearance for U.S. government employees to use its enterprise software on their Android and Apple Inc smartphones and tablets.

BlackBerry's Secure Work Space software fences off corporate email, calendar, contacts, tasks, memos, web browsing and document editing from personal apps and content on users' phones.

The company said on Wednesday its software got the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification, a coveted U.S. government security clearance.

The software will be managed through BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, the platform that allows the company's corporate and government clients to manage devices on different operating systems.

The certification will encourage BlackBerry's larger customers to continue to use its services, even as employees seek to use their own devices on corporate networks, which could lead to security breaches.

BlackBerry is trying to regain ground lost to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple, both of whom have the FIPS 140-2 certification.

BlackBerry's shares were marginally lower at C$10.37 in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Anannya Pramanick in Bangalore; Editing by Savio D'Souza)