The National Security Agency is launching a mobile device capability at the end of this year that will allow its personnel to securely access classified information with their smartphones and tablet computers.

The program, which is a joint effort with the Defense Information Systems Agency, could potentially provide the military services with similar secure information access capabilities.

Secure access to top secret data has been the Holy Grail for mobile device use in the military and intelligence communities. But a number of technological hurdles had prevented this, most notably the fact that commercial mobile operating systems and devices were not developed to meet stringent government security requirements.

In the last few years, the government has worked with industry to develop more secure versions of mobile operating systems. Where a commercial solution has not been available, the military and intelligence communities developed specialized software to increase the security features of civilian handhelds.

Read more at Breaking Gov.