The iPhone and iPad are the first consumer devices to meet the information assurance standards set by NATO member nations. As a result, the devices can be used to handle classified information up to the NATO Restricted level without the need for specialized software or additional configuration, the company announced Thursday.
“Apple has built the most secure devices in the world for all its users, and those same protections are now uniquely certified under assurance requirements for NATO nations — unlike any other device in the industry,” said Ivan Krstić, Apple’s vice president of Security Engineering and Architecture.
iPhone and iPad meet NATO standards for classified information
Certification under NATO security standards should offer meaningful reassurance to everyday users, not just government agencies. Meeting the alliance’s strict information assurance requirements means the iPhone and iPad have been evaluated against rigorous criteria designed to protect highly sensitive data from sophisticated threats.
Devices considered secure enough to handle classified information at the NATO Restricted level should make consumers confident that their personal messages, photos, financial details and work documents are protected by the same robust safeguards.
While no system is completely immune from risk, this level of independent government validation underscores the strength of Apple’s security architecture.
Apple takes iPhone and iPad security seriously
Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “privacy is a fundamental human right” in 2021, and other executives have echoed that promise.
And the company backs up that promise. Apple says it builds security into its products from the ground up, embedding advanced protections across hardware, software and Apple silicon. iPhone and iPad include features such as end-to-end encryption, biometric authentication through Face ID and safeguards like Memory Integrity Enforcement.
Those protections have now been recognized as meeting strict government and international security standards, including requirements for handling restricted data.
Rigorously tested
iPhone and iPad previously received approval to handle classified German government data on devices using native iOS and iPadOS security measures. The evaluation was carried out by Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, or BSI).
Now, iPhone and iPad running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 have gone a big step further — they are certified for such use in all NATO nations.
“Expanding on BSI’s rigorous audit of iOS and iPadOS platform and device security for use in classified German information environments, we are pleased to confirm the compliance under NATO nations’ assurance requirements,” said Claudia Plattner, BSI’s president.
This is a level of government certification no other consumer mobile device can match.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
