BlackBerry launches BBM Protected for Android, iOS devices

Blackberry has now decided to offer a secure server for its BBM enterprise users across platforms to exchange secure messages through a new IM service. To prevent anything similar to the FREAK vulnerability, this service will use encryption keys which are generated by the communicating mobile devices themselves. Up until now, this service was only available for BB handsets. This service will offer BBM Protected users to have secure chats with non-BlackBerry Protected workers at other companies or with customers. The latter will have to download the free version for their smartphone to use this feature. [caption id=“attachment_259962” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: BlackBerry[/caption]   BlackBerry mentioned on their blog that, BBM Protected will offer an enterprise-grade secure instant messaging service with all the features of a consumer IM app. It added that, the BlackBerry innovation will effectively prevent ‘man in the middle’ hacker attacks and provide greater security than competing encryption schemes. BBM Protected is available through an extra subscription service via BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) from BlackBerry. The company is also offering a 30-day free trial. The Android version will work with Android 4.0 or higher and with BBM 2.6 or higher.