The RIM® Cryptographic API that is on a BlackBerry® device and in the BlackBerry® Java® Development Environment consists of a Java interface that includes an encryption algorithm, a key agreement scheme, a signature scheme algorithm, a key generation algorithm, a message authentication code, cipher suites, a message digest, and a hash code.

A developer can use the BlackBerry JDE to access the RIM Cryptographic API to create an application that can run on the BlackBerry device. The developer is not required to change or access the encryption code directly because all calls to the native C++ encryption code are sent through the Java code.

Research In Motion uses code signing to authorize and authenticate an application and permit it to run on the BlackBerry device. Code signing is also used to control the ability of the application to access the RIM Cryptographic API.