Updated July 28 at 9:45 a.m. PDT with more information about the leak.

On Monday afternoon, Skyfire announced it would put a temporary halt on its alpha program for BlackBerry. The makers of a popular alternative mobile browser for Symbian and Windows Mobile phones pulled the private testing program when they discovered earlier Monday that a nondisclosure agreement had been broken and the program’s download link had been leaked.

Co-founder Nitin Bhandari wrote on Skyfire’s blog, “During the time it was leaked, there were many BlackBerry users trying the alpha release on Curves, Storms, and other BlackBerry models–it was not intended for these devices.”

This statement suggests the company might fear the possibility that negative press could plague the product before its sanctioned beta release. A Skyfire spokesperson told CNET that the leak was not internal.

This alpha photo was leaked last April.

This is not the first time Skyfire has had problems with overenthusiastic alpha testers. In April, screenshots of an even earlier-stage alpha build for BlackBerry hit the Web, much to Skyfire’s consternation.

Skyfire has not said when it will reinstate the alpha testing program for its BlackBerry browser.

Originally posted at The Download Blog