The National Security Agency is now suggesting government departments and businesses buy smartphones secured using virtualization, a technology it currently requires only on tablets and laptops
The change comes about with the arrival of the first virtualization-based smartphone security system on the U.S. Commercial Solutions for Classified list.
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CSFC is a program developed by the NSA to help U.S. government agencies and the businesses that serve them to quickly build layered secure systems from approved components.
An HTC A9 smartphone security-hardened by Cog Systems using its D4 virtualization platform is now on that list, alongside devices without virtualization from Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and BlackBerry.
In the modified A9, communications functions are secured by running them in separate virtual machines on the D4 virtualization platform.
It's the first smartphone on the CSFC list to use virtualization, which the NSA has only required on more powerful devices such as tablets and laptops until now.
