BlackBerry on Monday rolled out a reliable enterprise dedicated messaging service dubbed BBM Protected, as part of its recently introduced eBBM Suite for secure corporate messaging.
BBM Protected comes with an additional layer of encryption for BBM messages and compliance features with support for FIPS 140-2 encryption feature, making it more reliable for business enterprises than its regular version.
The new feature will ensure that messages sent between BBM Protected users are protected by encryption using unique public/private keys. There will be separate encryption keys for each message sent rather than one key for an entire conversation.
This implies that a hacker, in order to access the messages, would require cracking a separate code for each message and then stringing them together to get hold of the conversation rather than cracking one code to snoop on the user’s entire conversation.
“BBM Protected is the only secure mobile instant messaging app that uses a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic library,” BlackBerry said in a statement.
“BBM Protected enables employees to use the same app to securely message colleagues inside the company for work as they do to chat and share with family and friends outside the company.”
BBM also notes that as BBM Protected will work within the standard BBM application, so BBM users will not have to download any additional apps.
The company said BBM Protected is available on BlackBerry smartphones running BBOS 6.0 or later or BlackBerry 10 platform in Regulated mode starting Monday. While BBM Protected versions for BlackBerry 10 smartphones using BlackBerry Balance and iOS and Android devices will be rolled out sometime later this year.
