BlackBerry has always been an inventor and innovator, way out ahead of the curve. We began patenting secure mobile communications in the mid-80s, and we were making smartphones long before they were glued to all our palms.
Today, we are focused on cybersecurity because we see a physical world connected by billions of endpoints where nothing is safe when even a single node is unprotected. We are pushing for a transformation across our industry – and every industry – to design security into every product and service from the ground up. It’s why we were ready for the announcement of iOS 11 on Day Zero with an update to our BlackBerry Enterprise Mobility Suite that ensures secure communications for our enterprise customers.
Being ahead of the curve in technology and elsewhere is a winning strategy, but it sometimes means you’ll have to endure skeptics and critics along the way.
Take the “swipe-up” feature that is coming in iOS 11. We introduced that innovation 4 years ago with our BB10 devices, and it was controversial to say the least. Now, it looks poised to become a standard UI feature. Or take c|net’s recent story about hacking a smart tea kettle…we showed that hack off about a year ago at our Security Summit (scroll ahead to 3:00 in the video below).
Two years ago, we showed how hackers could exploit a medical infusion pump to tamper with patient drug doses. Just last month, a similar vulnerability forced a recall on nearly half a million pace-makers.
Experts predict that the Enterprise of Things – smart, connected devices that are helping businesses and governments become more productive – is expected to grow to 19.9 billion devices by the year 2020. Such EoT devices, including weight sensors that automatically transmit back inventory information to databases, to connected cars, to the aforementioned medical devices, are expected to dwarf consumer IoT gadgets by a ratio of 4:1.
Making the EoT secure and safe is a huge challenge and opportunity. Which is why BlackBerry’s attention is devoted 100% in this area.
This fall, BlackBerry is planning two Security Summit events: an Oct. 24-25 event in London, and one Nov. 14-15 in New York City. We’ve expanded them into two-day events to accommodate our growing ecosystem of enterprise developers and channel partners and the focus remains on delivering cutting-edge knowledge to help enterprises secure themselves in an increasingly insecure world.
And of course you can bet that we’re planning something on-stage this year that’s just as compelling and forward thinking as we’ve been in the past. Perhaps this year we might even get the appropriate credit. Whether you’re a developer, reseller, IT decision-maker, or just curious to see what we have up our sleeves, you are invited to register for one of our Security Summits this fall.
