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Las Vegas, US, CES 2019: BlackBerry Limited has decided to become the “go to” agency for Internet of Things (IoT) security. It has announced on the eve of global electronics show CES 2019 that it was scaling its BlackBerry Secure technology and licensing strategy to “empower the electronics industry to rapidly bring-to-market safe and secure IoT devices.”
According to a recent survey commissioned by the company, approximately 80 per cent of consumers in the US, UK and Canada said they did not trust their current Internet-connected devices to secure their data and privacy. Additionally, when asked about future purchases, respondents said they were more likely to choose a product or do business with a company that had a strong reputation for data security and privacy. All this had spurred Blackberry to making this new move.
The company’s new BlackBerry Secure packs addressed this concern and buying preference by giving IoT device manufacturers the trusted software and proven framework to securely build smart products – from health trackers to Alexa-enabled speakers – without having to develop the technology and deep cybersecurity expertise internally, announced Blackberry.
To ensure that the products had been developed to its exacting standards, BlackBerry’s team of cybersecurity experts will initially review the device. Following this process, the product will be deemed BlackBerry Secure, a recognised symbol of data security and trust.
“2019 will be the year consumers will begin to vote with their wallets and seek out products that promise a higher level of security and data privacy,” said Alex Thurber, Senior Vice-President and General Manager of Mobility Solutions at BlackBerry. “IoT device manufacturers can address security and privacy concerns head-on and stand out in the cluttered IoT space by bringing to market ultra-secure products that consumers, retailers, and enterprises want to buy and use. This new service is a pivotal point in the company’s software licensing strategy and underscores BlackBerry’s evolution from providing the most secure smartphones to delivering the trusted security for all smart ‘things’.”
Available today, OEMs will have the choice of the following feature packs which build upon each other and provide various levels of management and control:
BlackBerry Secure Enablement Feature Pack: The enablement pack offers secure manufacturing and product lifecycle management features. Specifically, BlackBerry will provide a manufacturing station that provides a hardware Root of Trust and is connected to the company’s Network Operation Center that is monitored 24/7 for uptime and reliability. During manufacturing, a BlackBerry Secure Identity Service Key is injected into the hardware and recorded on a secure server. Both at launch and periodically throughout the product’s lifecycle, checks are performed to verify that the two keys match. If they do not, the device no longer boots.
BlackBerry Secure Foundations Feature Pack: In addition to hardening the operating system kernel, the Foundations Pack locks down software being executed with Secure Boot and ARM Trustzone technology to securely generate, use and store encryption keys used for various software operations.
BlackBerry Secure Enterprise Feature Pack: The Enterprise Pack, said the company, is ideal for devices that will be used in regulated or restricted environments as it enables deeper management and control beyond what is standard in Android Enterprise. Through extended device management policies deployed on the device, enterprises can protect their data by controlling what can be accessed via device debug interfaces, communication protocols (Bluetooth, NFC), and radios (cellular, WIFI, GPS). It is also able to set policies which add baseline security for certifications such as FIPS.