BlackBerry buys Secusmart to bolster enterprise security offerings

blackberry q10

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.

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.