For governments and critical infrastructure operators, secure communications are essential to national governance, operational continuity, and crisis response.
Secure communication is the process of safeguarding communication channels and taking full control over critical information. It involves methods and technologies to ensure that all data exchanged between two or more parties remains confidential, authentic, and protected from unauthorized access, interception, alteration, or destruction. Put simply, it's about making sure that only the intended recipients can understand a message, that the data hasn't been tampered with or fallen into the wrong hands, and that the parties involved are who they claim to be.
Yet many widely-adopted messaging platforms — despite advertising strong message encryption — fail to deliver these broader protections required to operate in high-assurance environments.
The term “end-to-end encryption” is often treated as a complete solution for securing critical communications. However, in most cases it refers only to scrambling message content while it travels between devices. While that does help prevent network interception, it leaves major gaps: it doesn’t verify who is actually in the conversation, it doesn’t lock down the mobile devices themselves, and it doesn’t prevent outsiders from observing communication patterns — who is messaging whom, when messages are sent, and where they originate. Nor does it cover how the overall system is governed, configured, and audited for compliance or incident investigation.
These gaps were made evident in the recent SignalGate incident, where an unauthorized participant was mistakenly added to a group chat involving senior U.S. government officials. Mission-critical information was exposed, and operations could have been jeopardized. The exposure wasn’t due to a technical flaw involving lack of encryption, but because of a lack of identity validation and access controls within the messaging environment. The fact that a sensitive conversation took place on a consumer-grade app — without enrollment safeguards, identity validation, or audit capabilities — underscored the platform-level gaps that make such tools unsuitable for high-stakes operations.
The lesson is clear. Secure communications isn't just about network encryption. It’s about securing every layer, from infrastructure to identity to device, so that organizations can operate with full confidence and control. Encrypting messages in transit is necessary, but insufficient. Simply protecting the content of messages does not prevent exposure when the rest of the communications ecosystem is left ungoverned.
Where Consumer-Grade Platforms Fall Short
Secure Communications Best Practices
Building a Secure Communications Platform
Where Consumer-Grade Platforms Fall Short
Most commercially available messaging apps are not designed for national security or regulated environments. They offer network encryption for data in motion (marketed as “End-to-End Encrytption” or E2EE) but lack the essential security and policy enforcement features required for mission assurance:
Anyone Can Be Added and See Everything
Consumer apps let anyone register with just a phone number or username and enforce no limits on who can be invited to a chat or what they can access once inside. In the SignalGate incident, an unverified user was added to a top-level government discussion — because there were no enrollment checks, access rules, or audit logs — exposing critical conversations. Without these controls, unapproved participants can slip in and even legitimate users can overreach, putting sensitive information at risk.
Lack of Mobile Device Security
Consumer don’t provide secure containers, local encryption at rest, or data-loss prevention controls. Sensitive communications can be exposed through lost devices, mobile malware, or basic misuse — even if messages are encrypted in transit.
Sensitive Patterns Can Be Observed
Even when message content is encrypted, the platform often leaves behind visible patterns — such as who is communicating, how frequently, and from where. This metadata can be used to reconstruct patterns of life, revealing movement, routines, relationships, and operational structure.
Infrastructure Under Foreign Control
Consumer services are owned and operated by third-party vendors — often under foreign jurisdiction — so agencies have no authority over where data is stored, how it’s accessed, or when system changes occur. This lack of digital sovereignty creates legal exposure, compliance gaps, and even the risk that a foreign interest could shut down or degrade the system at will, jeopardizing critical communications.
No Audit Visibility or Compliance Oversight
Consumer apps provide no forensic logs or built-in reporting, so there’s no way to track who did what or prove compliance with regulatory mandates. Without audit trails, incidents go unanalyzed and organizations face gaps in accountability and oversight.
Secure Communications Best Practices: Beyond Network Encryption
Encrypting messages in flight is only the first step. True secure communications also demand rigorous identity controls, hardened device protections, and the ability to conceal or encrypt metadata — so that patterns of who communicates, when, and where remain hidden. Additionally, full digital sovereignty over infrastructure ensures that data residency and system updates stay within organizational control, while tamper-proof audit trails enable detection and investigation of any unauthorized activity. BlackBerry Secure Communications delivers this comprehensive, multi-layered protection in any environment — even when networks are unreliable or under attack.
Control Who Joins — and What They See: BlackBerry only allows approved users and devices into the system, issuing each a cryptographic credential tied to their role and clearance. Built-in policies then verify every invitation and restrict chat content by project, role, or clearance — updating or revoking permissions in real time. This ensures only the right people on vetted devices can join and view exactly what they’re authorized to see.
Mobile Device Security and Policy Enforcement: All communications must reside in secure containers with encryption at rest to harden both the operating system and applications on mobile devices. Device-level controls are necessary to prevent data export, screenshotting, or copy/paste. Administrators can revoke access instantly if a device is lost or non-compliant.
Shield Communication Patterns: Even when message content is encrypted, sessions still reveal “metadata” — details about who talks to whom, when they connect, and from where — that can be as revealing and damaging as the messages themselves. By concealing these traffic patterns — shielding timing, frequency, and location data — you prevent outsiders from piecing together routines, relationships, and movements. This ensures both the content and the context of your conversations remain private.
Own and Control Your Infrastructure: To achieve true digital sovereignty, the system must be deployable on-premises, in air-gapped environments, or within sovereign-managed clouds. Encryption keys and core infrastructure are generated, stored, and managed exclusively by the customer — ensuring full control over where data lives, who can access it, and when updates occur.
Maintain Audit Trails and Compliance Controls
BlackBerry logs every action — messages sent, participants added or removed, configuration changes — and stores tamper-proof records for the required retention period. Integrated reporting and customizable compliance dashboards ensure full visibility into system activity and simplify audits, investigations, and regulatory reviews.
How To Build a Secure Communications System
Developing a secure communications platform that extends beyond basic network encryption demands a comprehensive, strategic approach.
1. Define Your Security Requirements and Threat Model
- Identify High-Assurance Needs: Determine if your environment necessitates high-assurance communications, particularly for national governance, operational continuity, or crisis response. This assessment will guide the stringency of required security measures.
- Analyze Current Gaps: Evaluate existing communication methods for vulnerabilities in identity validation, mobile device security, metadata handling, and overall system governance.
- Develop a Threat Model: Define potential threats, including unauthorized access, data interception, metadata analysis, and device compromise. Consider real-world incidents like SignalGate, where a lack of controls, rather than technical flaws, led to exposure.
- Prioritize Capabilities: Ascertain the most critical security features for your specific use case, such as cryptographic identity, secure mobile containers, or metadata protection.
2. Establish Core Infrastructure and Ownership
- Choose Deployment Model: Select a deployment strategy — on-premises, air-gapped environments, or sovereign-managed clouds — that ensures full control over the infrastructure.
- Implement Key Ownership: Design the system such that encryption keys are generated, stored, and managed exclusively by the customer, eliminating reliance on third-party vendors.
- Ensure Platform Control: Select or build a platform where your organization maintains authority over data storage, access protocols, and system changes, thereby mitigating legal exposure and compliance gaps.
3. Implement Robust Identity and Access Controls
- Adopt Cryptographic Identity Verification: Move beyond open registration models. Implement a system where every user is authenticated through organization-issued cryptographic credentials, ensuring strict boundaries between roles, agencies, and jurisdictions. This prevents unauthorized access, AI-driven impersonation, and insider threats.
- Enforce Enrollment Discipline: Establish stringent processes for user enrollment and verification to ensure that only authorized participants can join conversations.
- Implement Role-Based Authentication and Access Boundaries: Design system-level guardrails to segment access by role or clearance and prevent unauthorized participants from joining sensitive discussions.
- Integrate Audit Capabilities: Build in features to maintain full audit trails and communication records for compliance and after-action review.
4. Secure Mobile Devices including Data at Rest and in Use
- Provide Secure Containers: Ensure all communications reside in secure containers on mobile devices, providing isolation from other applications.
- Implement Encryption at Rest: Encrypt all sensitive data stored locally on devices to protect against physical compromise.
- Enforce Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Controls: Implement device-level controls to prevent unauthorized data export, screenshotting, or copy/pasting of sensitive information.
- Enable Remote Access Revocation: Develop the capability for administrators to instantly revoke access to the system if a device is lost or becomes non-compliant. This also removes business data from their device, even if the device is not managed.
5. Protect Metadata and Communication Patterns
- Conceal or Encrypt Metadata: Design the system to conceal or encrypt communication patterns, such as frequency, timing, and location.
- Prevent Traffic Analysis: Implement measures to prevent external observation and reconstruction of "patterns of life" based on metadata.
- Mitigate Inference-Based Targeting: Ensure that metadata cannot be used to infer sensitive information about individuals, groups, or operational structures.
6. Enable Crisis Coordination and Mission Continuity
- Integrate Operational Capabilities: Build in features for rapid, coordinated action across teams, agencies, and jurisdictions. This includes alerting, geolocation, personnel accountability, and incident management.
- Support Real-time Situational Awareness: Incorporate trusted real-time intelligence, dashboards, acknowledgment tracking, and geolocation to maintain situational awareness during emergencies.
- Facilitate Targeted Communication: Develop capabilities to deliver targeted alerts and operational instructions based on role, location, or clearance.
- Ensure Unified Environment: Integrate all communication and coordination features into a single, secure environment to reduce the need to switch tools, retrain teams, or manage fragmented workflows during emergencies. This helps coordinate cross-agency response to cyberattacks, emergencies, and continuity threats.
7. Seek Independent Validation and Certification
- Prioritize Third-Party Validation: Understand that confidence in a secure communications system depends on independent, third-party validation.
- Pursue Relevant Certifications: Aim for rigorous certifications from recognized government and industry bodies covering deployment, software design, supply-chain integrity, and operational governance. Examples include approvals from Germany’s BSI; the U.S. NSA CSfC and NIAP Common Criteria EAL4+; NATO Restricted and DoDIN APL; FedRAMP High and StateRAMP High; and core standards such as FIPS 140-2, ISO 27001, and SOC 2.
- Commit to Ongoing Security: Only consider vendors that maintain — and even extend — their validations through constant security testing.
For governments and critical infrastructure operators, secure communications are essential to national governance, operational continuity, and crisis response.
