BlackBerry tablet computer to hide secrets from prying eyes

BlackBerry has introduced a tablet computer aimed at government and corporate customers that it says can let users access consumer applications such as YouTube and WhatsApp while keeping confidential work-related information away from spies and crooks.

The SecuTABLET, shown at the CeBIT conference in Hanover, Germany, is based on Samsung's Tab S 10.5 and uses IBM software to wrap applications that hold secrets into a virtual container where they can't be harmed by malware. Germany's computer-security watchdog is certifying the device for classified government communication, BlackBerry's Secusmart unit said on Saturday.

BlackBerry acquired Secusmart last year in an effort to win more business from customers demanding rigorous data security. The company, which sold few of its own 2011 Playbook tablets, is shifting from making hardware to building security components and software into competitors' devices as the frequency of cyberattacks mounts.

The tablet integrates BlackBerry's technology with one of its main competitors in the mobile-device market. "We do recognise that people actually have a personal life and a business life," said Lee Epting, head of Samsung's European corporate-customer business. "We need to be able to easily transfer between those two worlds."

The tension between maintaining personal privacy while letting employers secure phones has been in the spotlight with former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton's use of a single device and a home-based server for both her government work and private communications.