BlackBerry has acquired Secusmart, a voice and data encryption specialist to build upon its enterprise encryption standards.
Secusmart has also built a number of anti-eavesdropping solutions for government organisations, enterprises and telecommunications service providers in Germany and the rest of the world.
It's thought BlackBerry will integrate some of the features of Secusmart's products into its existing security portfolio as used on BlackBerry devices and servers.
John Chen, executive chairman and CEO of BlackBerry, explained the company is driving forward its promise to improve security on devices as the demands of the enterprise become more complex.
He explained that devices are being used for more business tasks and to store more critical information than before, while attacks are becoming more sophisticated.
Chen said: "The acquisition of Secusmart underscores our focus on addressing growing security costs and threats ranging from individual privacy to national security. This acquisition bolsters our security solutions with leading voice and data encryption and anti-eavesdropping technologies, and furthers BlackBerry's security leadership in end-to-end mobile solutions."
BlackBerry and Secumart have a history of working together and the security expert has provided a number of solutions for the BlackBerry 10 platform including SecuSUITE, which was used by Germany's Federal Office for Information Security to help communication lines between some of Germany's most high profile public officials.
Earlier this year, incoming CEO Chen said his priority was to return BlackBerry to its roots, launching devices with a physical keypad with its manufacturing partner Foxconn and concentrating on the enterprise rather than consumers.
His aim is to get BlackBerry back into profit by 2016 following a bad couple of years for the mobile company.
-
Bigger salaries, more burnout: Is the CISO role in crisis?In-depth CISOs are more stressed than ever before – but why is this and what can be done?
-
Cheap cyber crime kits can be bought on the dark web for less than $25News Research from NordVPN shows phishing kits are now widely available on the dark web and via messaging apps like Telegram, and are often selling for less than $25.
-
BlackBerry believes tech firms should submit to government requestsNews Canadian mobile maker says tech companies should be "good corporate citizens"
-
BBM Protected messaging feature unveiled by BlackBerryNews Phone maker touts FIPS 140-2 crypto for super secret messages as it renews focus on enterprise
-
GFI trumpets discovery of Olympic 2012 smartphone malwareNews Web security vendor claims to have discovered several sites listing Boxer-style malware as the official Olympic smartphone app.
-
Week in review: Lenovo trumps Dell; drone attack; security hacks aboundNews It's been cock-ups a plenty this week, on the part of both companies and customers, but Lenovo has plenty to be happy about. Or does it?
-
RIM planning BlackBerry Android tie up?News According to sources, Android apps could soon feature on BlackBerry smartphones.
-
Google patches WebKit flaw post Pwn2OwnNews Google patches a WebKit vulnerability, exploited by a team of Pwn2Own winners.
-
BlackBerry fixes critical Enterprise Server flawNews RIM issues patches and a workaround for a critical vulnerability in its BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
-
RIM patches potential BlackBerry phishing flawNews BlackBerry maker RIM secures a hole that could have led users to fall victim to a phishing attack, through email or SMS.
