BlackBerry Licensing Security Software
The new licensing program is called BlackBerry Secure and aims to protect devices with BlackBerry security technology.
BlackBerry announced Wednesday a new deal with Swiss consumer electronics maker Punkt allowing the company to use BlackBerry cybersecurity technology in its products and be certified BlackBerry Secure. The move comes as BlackBerry has begun to license its security technology to third-party hardware companies to be used inside phones and possibly other Internet of Things devices.
BlackBerry hasn’t made its own hardware since 2016, and instead now works in licensing, selling its branding and software to other companies for hardware use. The new licensing program is called BlackBerry Secure and aims to protect devices with BlackBerry security technology. It would then allow hardware manufacturers to brand their products as “BlackBerry Secure”.
BlackBerry’s security software works to strengthen the Android operating system. According to BlackBerry, it has “hardened” the Linux Kernel that Android runs on and encrypts the system’s storage. The company signs and injects encrypted keys during the manufacturing process that allow the hardware and software to verify that it hasn’t been tampered with as well as including pre-installed security monitoring apps.