More Germany IP Communications Stories

SecuSmart GmbH is a company that was established in 2007 with headquarters located in Dusseldorf, Germany. The goal of the company is to provide secure communications, and in 2009, the German government approved the use of the company’s security application. Since then, governmental agencies, defence ministries, and many other institutions have been using SecuSmart’s secure solutions. SecuSmart protects your telephone calls, text messages and mobile E-mails.

CeBIT (News - Alert) 2013 is going on this week in Hanover, Germany. Considered to be a prime event for the digital world, CeBIT showcases the latest trends and drives new business as the meeting place for all sectors of the industry.

Yesterday, SecuSmart unveiled a microSD card with a built-in processor that lets safeguards smartphones from being tapped. It is a technology that uses voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to actually place a call. Dr. Hans-Christoph Quelle (News - Alert), a managing director at SecuSmart, said that it provides real-time, full-duplex communications, so there is no time delay and both parties can talk at the same time. The technology works on Android (News - Alert) and BlackBerry phones.

This is great news for BlackBerry. The new BlackBerry 10 has been released in Europe since it was launched at the end of January. NATO considers the BlackBerry (News - Alert) 10 the only wireless platform secure enough to meet its needs. The platform can provide the necessary security while still retaining its ability to function as a smartphone connected to the Internet.

The new microSD card developed by SecuSmart takes advantage of BlackBerry 10’s new Balance feature. This feature allows the user to have two separate profiles – one for business as well as a separate, personal one. The secure wall that exists between the two profiles keeps them completely apart from each other.

The SecuSmart security suite allows users to have access to their personal e-mail, social networks and apps, while also maintaining a secure environment for protected apps and communications. The process allows easy switching between the two parts of the BlackBerry, with access to the secure side available only when the SecuSmart SD card is installed.

A spokesperson for SecuSmart explained, "If you remove the card, the secure part of BlackBerry Balance simply goes away. It's easy to make a phone secure, but it's hard to make a secure phone smart."

Following up, Scott Totzke, senior vice president of the BlackBerry security group added, "Security has always been built into the heart of the BlackBerry solution. Nothing is more secure than a BlackBerry smartphone connected to BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10."

What does all this mean or lead to? It leads to SecuSmart’s SecuSUITE for BlackBerry 10. It provides secured access to your business area, encrypted transmission of e-mail, voice, text messaging and secured browsing. Most importantly, what this really leads to is the BlackBerry 10 platform being chosen by the German government as their device of choice.

The German Procurement Office and Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) selected the BlackBerry 10 for classified communications. A combination of leveraging the unique capabilities of SecuSmart’s microSD card and the BlackBerry Balance feature makes this the first ever solution that meets the extremely high security requirements of the German federal authorities for secure data and secure voice communications, while at the same time, allowing for an uncompromised user experience.

“The combined solution will for the first time ever bring a brilliant smartphone user experience to a government user without compromising sensitive state information,” Dr. Quelle said. “SecuSUITE for BlackBerry 10 is based on the secure voice product that has already been approved by German BSI, Dutch NBV, EU Information Assurance Council and NATO for RESTRICTED communications. Combined with BlackBerry10, we are glad to be able to meet the extremely high security requirements of the federal authorities in Germany.”

This is good news indeed for BlackBerry. They have lost a couple of large contracts lately, and being able to secure a NATO contract is a step in the right direction.