Canadian telecom and wireless equipment company BlackBerry is moving into the emerging Internet of Things. At a recent event in New York, CEO John Chen placed a special emphasis on digital security in an increasingly connected enterprise environment.
Having brushed aside rumours earlier this year that BlackBerry would be bought out by Samsung, the company now aims to make “the most secure mobile platform that the industry has to offer,” Chen said. Demonstrating the hacking vulnerabilities of even a morphine drip at a hospital bed, the company stressed that it is developing technologies to secure corporate networks and the range of devices that interact with them. One prong of that effort is the company’s recent acquisition of AtHoc, a software provider that has been developing technologies to facilitate communication between devices even in the event of a cyberattack.
Security experts have long expressed concern about the many potential security vulnerabilities that are going to emerge in the burgeoning Internet of Things ecosystem, and seeking to address those is perhaps a smart move for BlackBerry as the company seeks to recover from a very difficult experience in the smartphone market. Moreover, its longstanding membership with the FIDO Alliance lends the company a particular credibility in the area of authentication standards and security.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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