BlackBerry launches BBM Protected with enhanced security for enterprise messaging

BlackBerry has announced the launch of the much-awaited BBM Protected app, the first solution in the company's eBBM Suite developed for secure enterprise-class messaging. The eBBM suite has been purpose-built for business needs, and brings enhanced security and compliance options to the familiar BBM app. As part of the suite, BBM Protected will provide enhanced security for BBM messages sent between BlackBerry smartphones within the same company, and this can be configured on per-device basis. BlackBerry claims BBM Protected is the only mobile messaging app to use a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic library.The biggest advantage is that BBM Protected isn't just limited to users inside one company. Employees can chat securely with BBM Protected users at others organisations too so they do not need to be on the same BES server and no federation between servers is required. "We've been testing BBM Protected on behalf of our customers and have been impressed so far," said Zekeria Oezdemir, Technical Director of NovaLink. "BBM Protected is the ideal solution for our banking and insurance customers who have increased security needs." BBM Protected can be currently used for BlackBerry devices running BB0S 6.0 or later or those using BlackBerry 10 in Regulated mode. The company has said that BBM Protected for BlackBerry 10 using BlackBerry Balance, and for iOS and Android devices will be coming later this year. Over the past few months, the company has added a great deal of functionality to BBM, bringing the BBM Shop and Stickers. These, along with the eBBM suite, are expected to form the lynchpin of BlackBerry's strategy to make BBM a connected, OS-agnostic platform.