BlackBerry launches new UES platform for zero trust

BlackBerry announced at RSA Conference 2020 the BlackBerry Spark platform with a new unified endpoint security (UES) layer which can work with BlackBerry UEM and other unified endpoint management (UEM) solutions to deliver BlackBerry’s One Agent, One Console, One Crowd, One Cloud approach to achieve zero trust security.

Leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation, BlackBerry Spark now offers improved cyberthreat prevention and remediation, and provides visibility across all endpoints, including desktop, mobile, server, and IoT (including automotive).

Enterprises today are facing a chaotic environment as cybersecurity threats become more sophisticated and pervasive, while the numbers of connected enterprise endpoints and the amount of data shared at the edge grows exponentially.

To bring order to this chaos, BlackBerry Spark delivers a comprehensive security approach operating on one agent across all endpoints and one console for administrators. Threat data from endpoints are combined into one crowd-sourced repository and managed in one cloud environment.

• One Agent: Comprehensive endpoint support using a single agent, for desktop and mobile, IoT (including automotive and medical devices).
• One Console: Visibility across the enterprise to deliver security and Zero Trust with a zero touch end-user experience across endpoints, users, data, and networks managed through a single console.
• One Crowd: Leverage a proven AI-ML engine with years and multiple generations of threat detection and threat modelling that is continuously learning as your environment changes with new users, new devices, new applications, and new technologies.
• One Cloud: Instant access and visibility to high security requirements to enable the global ecosystem.

This comprehensive UEM and UES platform benefits the user with a higher value of security, including improved cyberthreat prevention and remediation, which simplifies administration, reduces costs, and eliminates unnecessary friction. These capabilities provide users with efficient access across resources from any device, at any time, from any location, over any network, to maintain visibility and control.

Delivering on zero trust

The power of the BlackBerry Spark platform is the ability to understand and define risks, make contextual decisions based on large amounts of data, and dynamically apply a set of policy controls to address the risks while enabling a Zero Trust environment.

BlackBerry Spark offers the broadest set of security capabilities and visibility covering people, devices network, apps, and automation. The platform’s six complementary technologies or pillars are: Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Mobile Threat Defense (MTD), Continuous Authentication, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and Secure Web Gateway.

These pillars work together seamlessly to share data for reporting, calculate risk across more domains, and further enable policy controls. For example, EDR leverages EPP and MTD technologies to prevent malware across the organization.

Continuous authentication uses data from MTD, EPP and EDR to create behavioral profiles. And finally, detailed understanding of data from DLP helps to further define the risks.

“BlackBerry Spark is built to enable a Zero Trust security environment, focused on earning trust across any endpoint and continuously validating that trust at every event or transaction,” said Billy Ho, Executive Vice President of Enterprise Products at BlackBerry.

“By validating user actions, BlackBerry Spark continuously authenticates users to deliver a Zero Touch experience that improves security with no user interruption. In this way, dynamic trust is maintained across all devices, networks, data, users, and apps.”

In a recently published report, Gartner said that it is “seeing the consolidation of MTD offerings with EDR and EPP tools. This will continue, combining to form a single solution during the next three to five years. Gartner has dubbed this combined infrastructure stack ‘unified endpoint security.’ Organizations should invest with this consolidation in mind.”

Works with other UEMs

Enterprises will have the option of using UEM products other than BlackBerry UEM to connect to the UES through a defined API. This allows enterprises to preserve their existing infrastructure investment while gaining the benefits from UES.

Open ecosystem

Enterprise and ISV developers can leverage the BlackBerry Spark SDK to easily incorporate security features into their applications.

Availability

BlackBerry Spark currently ships with Continuous Authentication, EPP, EDR, and MTD. The company will be announcing Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Secure Web Gateway in a future announcement.