(September 11, 2003) - Research In Motion (RIM) has announced the availability of its S/MIME Support Package v1.5 for BlackBerry. This software add-on product provides S/MIME (Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) support for Java-based BlackBerry handhelds and is now commercially available to all government and corporate customers.

"S/MIME support is an important purchasing requirement for many of our customers including the U.S. Department of Defense," said Don Morrison, chief operating officer at Research In Motion. "With the availability of S/MIME support for Java-based BlackBerry handhelds, our customers will enjoy a wider choice of BlackBerry handhelds and services that satisfy various corporate and departmental security policies relating to wireless phone and data usage. IT departments in both corporate and government organizations can now install this straightforward software upgrade to wirelessly extend their existing S/MIME email infrastructure while maintaining both sender-to-recipient encryption and a simple and fast interface for users."

S/MIME is an e-mail-system independent, Internet standards-based protocol that uses public key cryptography to provide writer-to-reader security features such as authentication and confidentiality message integrity. S/MIME offers an additional layer of security between the sender and recipient of an e-mail message using advanced encryption and digital signatures. S/MIME support can now be added to all Java-based BlackBerry handhelds in companies with BlackBerry Enterprise Server v3.5 or higher for Microsoft Exchange.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server has been deployed in over 11,000 companies and government organizations worldwide and features end-to-end Triple DES encryption to address corporate customer security requirements. In addition, BlackBerry has received the FIPS security validation for government customers.