BlackBerry Rolls Out Security-centric Tablet for Business, Government Officials

Written by DH Kass 1
March 18, 2015

BlackBerry showed off its new SecuTablet, based on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S 10.5 unit, at the CeBIT conference in Hanover, Germany last week.

Mobile device maker BlackBerry (BBRY) is venturing into the tablet market again but this time with a model heavy on security, directed at business and government users yet still suitable for unsecured consumer applications.

BlackBerry showed off its new SecuTablet, based on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S 10.5 unit, at the CeBIT conference in Hanover, Germany last week. The device, which deploys the Secusmart SecuSuite for BlackBerry 10 software, also uses IBM (IBM) technology to secure mobile apps by so-called wrapping where they are unreachable by malware.

Last July, in a deal finalized this past January, BlackBerry bought Secusmart, a German maker of data theft and anti-eavesdropping solutions whose technology secured BlackBerry smartphones provided to a number of German government agencies, government ministries and leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel. Secusmart’s technology is tailored to government organizations, enterprises and telecommunications service providers in Germany and internationally.

BlackBerry’s Secusmart unit currently is in the process of gaining certification for the device from the Germal Federal Office for Information Security for classified government communication, officials said.

“Security is ingrained in every part of BlackBerry’s portfolio, which includes voice and data encryption solutions,” said Dr. Hans-Christoph Quelle, BlackBerry’s Secusmart GmbH chief executive.

“National and international government customers have entrusted their voice and data communications with the Secusmart Security Card for years,” he said. “This same technology is what secures the new SecuTablet. Working alongside IBM and Samsung, we have added the last link in the chain of the Federal Security Network. Subject to certification of the SecuTablet German government agencies will have a new way to access BlackBerry’s most secure and complete communications network in the world.”

BlackBerry’s previous tablet entry in 2011 with its Playbook device went nowhere. But the security-centric focus of the SecuTablet may be able to deliver better results this time around.

“The SecuTablet closes a supply gap and opens up for government and administrations an opportunity to derive greater benefit from digitization and the mobile Internet, with system integration as a fundamental success factor,” said Stefan Hefter, IBM senior management consultant.

BlackBerry currently is the only mobile device management (MDM) vendor commanding the “Full Operational Capability” level of certification from the U.S. Department of Defense Networks.