BlackBerry announces handful of deals at the BlackBerry Security Summit
BlackBerry has announced that the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms Office (Sergeant at Arms) has awarded a multi-million dollar order for the BlackBerry AtHoc crisis communications software to power the Sergeant at Arms’ Joint Emergency Mass Notification Systems (JEMNS) over five years.
With full spectrum enterprise level alerting and accountability, JEMNS powered by AtHoc provides secure notification and communications in times of crisis for as many as 50,000 individuals working and visiting the US Capitol Complex.
This announcement marks the second large engagement between BlackBerry’s AtHoc and Leidos, which also partnered to provide the US Army their global mass notification under the Emergency Management Modernization Program. Full implementation of the JEMNS based on the AtHoc solution will be achieved over the coming months, with Leidos providing direct support and help desk support to the Congressional community.
“It’s critical for the nation’s political epicenter to be prepared with a unified communications system to swiftly and securely communicate in the event of an emergency,†said BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen.
“The U.S. Senate is joining more than 3 million U.S. federal government personnel today in using BlackBerry’s AtHoc software for their crisis communications capability.â€Â
The company also said that AtHoc, a crisis communications firm it bought last year, had expanded a deal with the U.S. Coast Guard to cover staff in Washington, D.C. Athoc will be used to power the Sergeant at Arms’ Joint Emergency Mass Notifications System over the next five years and will provide secure notifications and communications in times of crisis for as many as 50,000 individuals working in and visiting the U.S. Capitol Complex.
“We are honored by the long-term relationship forged with the Department of Homeland Security,†said Guy Miasnik, President of BlackBerry’s AtHoc division.
“We are committed to continuously support its mission of securing our nation both in the physical and cyber spaces.â€Â
This expansion will allow the Coast Guard to alert staff members in the National Capitol Region, enabling more than 3,800 individuals to receive and respond to emergency alerts on their computers. And that, in turn, will allow better collaboration between both staff and departments in a crisis situation – and more lives saved as a result.
STIG
The company also announced that its multi-OS EMM platform BES12 and the latest BlackBerry OS 10.3.2 for smartphones have achieved STIG approval from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for use at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). With this, government customers are provided with confidence that the BlackBerry security platform meets the highest requirements of regulated industries.
STIGs (Security Technical Implementation Guides) are very important in helping prevent cyberattacks for the federal government, Department of Defense agencies and commercial organizations. This approval shows that BlackBerry’s security capabilities and trusted mobile solutions continue to comply with the latest security standards and certifications in the industry. BlackBerry has more than 80 government certifications and approvals, more than any other mobile vendor.
“Security is one of the top priorities for our government customers. The latest approval from the DoD around our secure end-to-end mobility offering, including BES12 version 12.3 and smartphone OS 10.3.2, shows that our secure platform is designed to meet their priorities,” said David Kleidermacher, Chief Security Officer at BlackBerry.
“BlackBerry believes that security should be an enabler of productivity and collaboration in both the public and private sector. This achievement also provides confidence to our global enterprise customers when deploying the secure BlackBerry multi-OS EMM portfolio throughout their organizations.”
The DISA STIGs comprise a library of documents that explain very specifically how computing devices should be configured to maximize security. There are over 400 STIGs available today, each describing how a specific application, operating system, network device or smartphone should be configured.
AppDome
BlackBerry finally said it had teamed up with a company called AppDome to allow corporate coders to translate apps made for other systems for use with BlackBerry systems.
AppDome, helps developers secure mobile apps from advanced cyber threats, mobile fraud, IP rights infringement and data theft
According to AppDome:
“AppDome’s app fusion technology defends iOS and Android apps from a range of attack vectors,” its Web site states. “The app fusion operates on the final application package, and does not require any source code modifications or SDK integration during the development life cycle.”
