One of the major concerns of mobile use in the enterprise is keeping company data secure. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) already offers a reliable messaging service with millions of users worldwide, but now with the launch of a new service it lets employees benefit from speedy, reliable and private business communication.
The new BBM Protected service offers enhanced security for messages sent between BlackBerry devices by adding an extra layer of encryption to the standard BBM which encrypts messages in transit.
BBM Protected incorporates three layers of security in transit. Messages between users of the system are protected by encryption using unique public/private keys. A 168-bit key is used to encrypt and authenticate messages, and TLS transport layer encryption helps protect against eavesdropping in transit. It also protects data on the device, building on the existing BlackBerry security model.
A key feature of BBM Protected is that it's seamless for the end user. The same app is used for both company and personal BBM messages, if the recipient is also a Protected user the extra encryption is automatically applied. This means it can be used to chat securely to BBM Protected users at other companies too without any extra configuration being needed. It also offers notifications so that you can be sure the recipient has read your message.
Because it's designed for mobile from the outset it offers better performance than other enterprise IM clients that originated as desktop solutions.
For companies that are already using BlackBerry Enterprise Server, BBM Protected can be easily deployed via the existing management console. It offers full logging and auditing features to ensure compliance too.
You can find out more and see the full system requirements on the BlackBerry website.
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