BlackBerry Launches BBM Protected as First Product in eBBM Suite

BlackBerry on Monday announced the availability of BBM Protected, the first solution in the eBBM Suite for secure enterprise-class messaging.

The eBBM Suite is a new family of BBM products and services built for business that according to BlackBerry brings together the 'convenience and usability of BBM' with the 'additional security and compliance' required by enterprise customers.

Back in May, two leaked videos of BlackBerry's Jeff Gadway, Head of Product Marketing for BBM, making a presentation about eBBM had indicated that one of the versions of the product (BBM Protected for BBOS 6+ and Regulated BB10.2+ activations) would be launched in June, while also detailing other versions.

BlackBerry's eBBM Suite is said to include new services designed to enable mobile workers to be more productive on the go, while meeting enterprises' needs for security, manageability and control. BlackBerry says the first product in the eBBM Suite, BBM Protected (first announced at MWC 2014), is being delivered ahead of schedule.

As part of the suite, BBM Protected provides an enhanced security model for BBM messages sent between BlackBerry smartphones for enterprises. BBM Protected brings regulated industries the most secure and reliable real-time mobile messaging experience in the industry. BlackBerry says BBM Protected is the only secure mobile instant messaging app that uses a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic library.

According to BlackBerry, the 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. Secure BBM Protected chats aren't limited to users inside the company; employees can chat securely with BBM Protected users at others companies too - they do not need to be on the same BES server and no federation between servers is required.

"We've been testing BBM Protected on behalf of our customers and have been impressed so far," said Zekeria Oezdemir, Technical Director of NovaLink. "BBM Protected is the ideal solution for our banking and insurance customers who have increased security needs."

The current release of BBM Protected can be used for BlackBerry smartphones running BB0S 6.0 or later or BlackBerry 10 in Regulated mode. Versions of BBM Protected for BlackBerry 10 smartphones using BlackBerry Balance and iOS and Android devices are expected later this year.