When we launched BBM Enterprise (formerly known as BBM Protected) ahead of schedule in June, we were focused on enterprise customers in regulated industries with BBOS devices and BlackBerry 10 smartphones operating in work space only mode. We were able to offer a value proposition to these customers of improved employee collaboration through the speed and reliability of BBM plus the added security offered by advanced BBM Enterprise encryption, using public/private encryption keys held by the enterprise.
This advanced encryption model has been designed to protect security conscious organizations from threats like spying, hacking, accidental data leakage, non-compliance and more. As the only secure IM client to use a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic module making it secure enough for government communications, we’re confident that BBM Enterprise lives up to the demanding needs of our most security conscious customers.
(As of February 2015, BlackBerry holds 70+ security certifications and approvals from governments.)
The early response to BBM Enterprise has been fantastic, with customers in regulated industries like healthcare, finance and government expressing interest. Here’s an example of how a health care provider is using BBM Enterprise to securely connect staff.
Today we started phase 2 of the BBM Enterprise roll out, adding support for BlackBerry devices using Balance technology. This step allows BBM Enterprise to work in BYOD, Balance, and COPE (Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled) environments as well as COBO (Corporate Owned, Business Only).
For security conscious organizations using Balance technology we’re excited to be able to offer enhanced BBM Enterprise level encryption to the intra-company BBM messages being sent between employees inside the company as well as inter-company BBM messages being sent to employees at other companies using BBM Enterprise.
Just as before, enabling BBM Enterprise for Balance enabled devices is as simple as turning on an IT policy through the BES console. And for end users, the experience remains as simple and hassle free too – keep using BBM as you do today! End users will continue to use the same BBM app they currently have and BBM messages to other BBM Enterprise users (either at their company or at other companies using BBM Enterprise) are encrypted automatically using the advanced BBM Enterprise encryption. Messages sent to friends and family use the standard BBM encryption.
If you’d like to learn more about BBM Enterprise, please visit the BBM Enterprise product page.