BlackBerry Buys UK Firm Encription To Boost New Cybersecurity Service

BlackBerry has acquired British firm Encription to power is new ‘Professional Cybersecurity Services practice’, which will consult businesses looking to protect themselves.

Worcestershire-based Encription provides companies, local government, emergency services and others, with penetration testing and security training. It also has one of the UK government’s highest security standards with the CESG CHECK IT and ISO/IEC 27001 certifications.

Brit Purchase

BlackBerry says that Encription has “years of cybersecurity consulting experience”, but it did not reveal financial terms of the deal, which closed 19 February.

BlackBerry cited the fact that cybersecurity is a persistent and increasing business risk for organisations. Indeed, it pointed to the 2015 Cost of Data Breach Study, which found that data breaches currently cost the global economy more than $400bn (£287bn) every year.

And the Canadian company pointed out that some industry sectors, such as car makers, are being having to deal with cybersecurity threats for the first time as cars become more connected.

“BlackBerry is the gold standard when it comes to security and we’re always evolving to maintain this high standard as the complexity of enterprise mobility and security increases,” said John Chen, BlackBerry CEO.

“We recognise that security vulnerabilities are a top risk concern for public and private sector organizations alike. The creation of our Professional Cybersecurity Services practice and acquisition of Encription reinforces our commitment to providing customers the industry’s most secure mobility solutions and helping them to assess and mitigate risks.”

Protect yourself

The aim of the new cpractice is to advise customers on the latest cybersecurity threats, and help them develop and implement the appropriate counter measures. Specifically, the new Professional Cybersecurity Services practice will advise on strategic security, namely best practice for enterprise mobility management and cloud services.

It will also look to improve an organisation’s technical security, by providing technical assistance for both infrastructure and any products being developed by the customer.Another speciality will be consulting services for car makers and IoT vendors.

Finally it will also offer detection, testing and analysis services, thanks to the Encription purchase.

This means it will offer threat detection and mitigation penetration testing, vulnerability assessment and incident response analysis. It includes forensic services, business security status via IT health checks, training, regulatory compliance and security breach management through incident response.

Secure Handsets

BlackBerry of course made its name in the smartphone arena, where its handsets were always regarded as one the most secure mobile devices.

Recently the company launched its new flagship model, the BlackBerry Priv, its first-ever Android smartphone. That handset is unique as it features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard alongside traditional touchscreen interface.

Earlier this month the Canadian phone maker confirmed that it will axe 200 jobs at its hometown headquarters in Ontario as well as its base in Florida, as it looks to cut costs as part of a long-standing reinvention.

Think you’re a BlackBerry expert? Take our quiz!