BlackBerry SecuSUITE Awarded Updated NIAP/Common Criteria and CSfC Certification for Secure Communication Amidst Rise of ‘Balloon-Based’ Nation-State Spying Efforts

New Enterprise Edition Launched to Help Businesses Address Latest Surveillance Threats including ‘Balloon-Based’ Communications Monitoring Tactics

WATERLOO, CANADA – February 23, 2023 – BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) today announced SecuSUITE® for Government 5.0 was awarded updated NIAP Certifications and listed as a Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) compliant product to meet the highest security requirements for the U.S. Federal Government and the broader Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

The updated NIAP certification further strengthens BlackBerry’s portfolio of certified security solutions for the government sector and comes amidst increased national security concerns tied to the recent influx of suspected spying operations Nation-States have undertaken using fleets of high-altitude surveillance balloons across the globe.

Security vendors are required to seek re-certification of their products every two years as NIAP is constantly updating the associated protection profiles to address the latest security issues with a view to guarding against novel attacks.

“From Ukrainian and Russian forces intercepting each other’s phone calls to gain an upper hand in the conflict, to the recent public awareness of State-sponsored, high-altitude monitoring platforms, over the past year there have been no shortage of reminders of the susceptibility of mobile communications to interception,” said Christoph Erdmann, SVP Secusmart at BlackBerry. “Today, communications – whether phone calls, messages or file sharing — are being compromised and intercepted at rates never before seen, putting both regular business people and national security-driven missions at extreme risk. It doesn’t have to be this way and our renewed NIAP certifications should provide peace of mind to those looking for watertight communications security that guards against adversarial surveillance efforts from both traditional ‘bugs’ and brazen spy balloons.”

SecuSUITE® multi-platform technology protects governments globally against eavesdropping threats to national security communications. In response to the recent spate of high-profile suspected surveillance incidents, the company is also rolling out a new version for select enterprise customers designed to protect sensitive business communications of executives. For businesses or governments, deployed as a secure app using off-the-shelf iOS®, Android™ or Windows® devices, the software can be easily rolled out to existing fleets of devices, eliminating the need to carry another device. Using end-to-end encryption, the solution secures one-to-one and group voice calls, messages, file exchange and group chats across international networks. SecuSUITE can also ensure calls from foreign networks to any home country number are protected. 

“Most enterprises spend a great deal of effort securing their data, but very few businesses and governments expend any significant effort to protect their staff’s everyday mobile calling and messaging from interception, spoofing and metadata mining,” says Jack Gold, President of J.Gold Associates, LLC. “This is a major failing as protecting communications is a critical part of an organization’s overall cybersecurity readiness posture. Solutions like BlackBerry SecuSUITE that provide a proven way to do so for both the public and private sector should be an organizational imperative to guard against things like IP theft or blackmail that is quite often the goal of financially or geo-politically motivated eavesdropping efforts.”

BlackBerry SecuSUITE’s updated NIAP certification and new enterprise offering closely follows the news of the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency), awarding security accreditation to SecuSUITE® for Government for global use in official NATO secure communications. 

More information on BlackBerry SecuSUITE is available here.

About BlackBerry

BlackBerry (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world.  The company secures more than 500M endpoints including over 215M vehicles.  Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company leverages AI and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, safety and data privacy solutions, and is a leader in the areas of endpoint management, endpoint security, encryption, and embedded systems.  BlackBerry’s vision is clear - to secure a connected future you can trust. 

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