BlackBerry Limited revealed at CES 2019 today that it is 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% of consumers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada do 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.

The company’s new BlackBerry Secure feature packs address 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.

To ensure the products have been developed to our standards, BlackBerry’s team of cybersecurity experts 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, SVP 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.

The BlackBerry Secure Enablement Feature 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 is 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. It also includes the BlackBerry Integrity Detection (BID) service which various components (kernel, Pathtrust, SELinux, etc) across the software stack, and generates real-time ‘health’ reports that can be accessed by users and trusted third-party applications.

BlackBerry Secure Enterprise Feature Pack 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.

BlackBerry are currently available to discuss the new solution at CES Unveiled which is on now.

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BlackBerry Limited and Jaguar Land Rover announced to us here at STG that the companies have entered into a multi-year agreement to collaborate and develop technology for the automotive manufacturer’s next-generation vehicles.

As part of the agreement, BlackBerry will license its QNX and Certicom technology to Jaguar Land Rover, as well as assign a team of engineers to support in the development of new Electronic Control Unit (ECU) modules. The first ECU project will be a next-generation infotainment system.

“Working with BlackBerry will enable us to develop the safe and secure next-generation connected car our customers want,” said Dave Nesbitt, Vehicle Engineering Director at Jaguar Land Rover. “Together with BlackBerry engineers, we will be able to access the most dynamic and up-to-date software to ensure the highest security required for our connected vehicles.”

“We are at a pivotal moment, where innovative automakers, such as Jaguar Land Rover, are realizing they need to take an active role in defining the software architecture for their vehicles,” said John Wall, SVP and GM of BlackBerry QNX, BlackBerry. “Connected and autonomous vehicles will react and drive based on rich data. Our platforms help process data efficiently and keep it secure and trusted. We are incredibly honored to work with Jaguar Land Rover and look forward to our teams working hand in hand to deliver an enhanced driving experience for their customers.”

As the leader in safety-certified, secure, and reliable software for the automotive industry, BlackBerry currently provides OEMs around the world with state-of-the-art technology to protect and mitigate hardware, software, applications and end-to-end systems from cyberattacks. BlackBerry’s pedigree in security and continued innovation has led to recent automotive design wins with Baidu, Delphi, Denso, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Visteon, and others.

Terms of the agreement are confidential are currently under wraps but we expect to hear more info about it soon.

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