Silent Circle Unveils Enterprise Platform, New Devices
Posted on March 2, 2015 by Kara Dunlap in Security
Silent Circle Launches Enterprise Platform and New Devices Including Blackphone 2 and Blackphone+ Tablet
Silent Circle today unveiled two new devices as part of its Blackphone product line, along with a with new enterprise platform that combines devices, software and services into a privacy and security focused mobile architecture.
New hardware unveiled by the company includes the Blackphone 2 and the privacy focused tablet, Blackphone+.
Scheduled to be available in the second half of 2015, Blackphone 2 and offers hardware improvements over its predecessor, including a faster 8-core processor, three times more RAM, a longer lasting battery, the company said. The smartphone also integrates with existing Mobile Device Management systems and comes with a larger Full HD display.
Arriving later in 2015, the Blackphone+ tablet will offer privacy for mobile workers, the company said.
News of the enterprise platform and new hardware offerings comes just days after the company announced that it had agreed to buy out a joint venture with Geeksphone, giving Silent Circle a 100 percent ownership stake in SGP Technologies and full ownership of the privacy and security focused Blackphone product line.
Offerings and enhancements coming as part of the new platform include:
PrivatOS 1.1 – The first major upgrade to the Android-based operating system created by Silent Circle introduces Spaces, an OS-level virtualization and management solution that enable devices to separate work from play. Geared specifically for the enterprise, PrivatOS allows users to keep enterprise and personal apps separate, while enabling IT administrators to lock and wipe enterprise managed ‘Spaces’ when necessary.
PrivatOS can also now integrate with several Mobile Device Management (MDM) platforms as a result of partnerships with Citrix, Soti and Good Technology.
Silent Suite, a set of core applications with peer-to-peer key negotiation and management, now includes Silent Meeting, a new, secure conference calling system that supports multiple participants.
Aditional services offered as part of the enterprise platform include:
Silent Store – Installed on all Blackphone devices, the world’s first privacy-focused app store features apps from the developer community vetted by Silent Circle.
Silent World – An encrypted calling plan that lets users communicate privately with those who don’t have Silent Phone. Silent Worlds allows users to call anyone within the Silent Circle coverage areas privately, with no roaming charges or extra fees.
Silent Manager – Silent Manager gives enterprises a simple web based solution for managing plans, users and devices.
“Traditional security solutions have failed global enterprise in a mobile world and make data and privacy breaches feel inevitable to most enterprises,” said Mike Janke, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Silent Circle Board at a press conference held at Mobile World Congress 2015 this morning. “What’s more, these breaches have evolved and have much broader impact. They now put every customer, employee and partner at risk. They are eroding the trust people have in enterprises. They have moved privacy firmly to the top of the boardroom agenda.”
“Enterprises have been underserved when it comes to privacy,” said Bill Conner, President and CEO of Silent Circle. “Traditional approaches to security have failed them. We’re here to fix that. We have to understand that to achieve real privacy now requires security plus policy. That new equation is driving everything we do in building the world’s first enterprise privacy platform.”
In May 2014, Silent Circle announced that it had decided to move its global headquarters from the Caribbean island of Nevis to Switzerland, in order to take advantage of the country’s privacy laws.
Last week, the company also announced that it had raised approximately $ 50 million in a private, common equity round to support accelerated growth.
Managing Editor, SecurityWeek.
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Mobile Ad Libraries Put Enterprise Data at Risk, Firm Says
Posted on June 4, 2014 by Kara Dunlap in Security
Mojave Networks Introduces Mobile Application Reputation Feature
Mojave Networks has added a new feature to the company’s professional and enterprise services in an effort to help organizations minimize the risks posed by the mobile applications used by their employees.
According to the company, organizations can use the new feature to discover potential risks by analyzing data collected and transmitted from mobile apps, and create policies for data loss prevention based on the information.
The new mobile application reputation offering, which is available immediately, includes features like customizable analytics, categorization of apps by risk level, application tracking, and integration with device management and network security solutions.
“The ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) trend is transitioning to ‘bring your own applications’ (BYOA) as users download more and more apps to share data, increase productivity and stay connected,” noted Garrett Larsson, CEO and co-founder of Mojave Networks.
“If any application running on a mobile device connected to the network is insecure, it can put highly sensitive corporate data at risk. Our new application reputation feature can help enterprises improve their mobile security posture by eliminating the risk of insecure applications.”
The company analyzes over 2,000 mobile apps every day by tracking 200 individual risk factors in 15 different categories. In addition to static and dynamic analysis, Mojave Networks said that it uses data from real-world usage of the tested applications to determine if an application is safe.
One risk that’s particularly problematic for enterprises is when private data is collected and sent to remote Web APIs, the company warned.
“Some of the most significant risk factors affecting corporate employees and individual mobile users, such as data loss and PII collection, occur not by the application itself, but within mobile advertising libraries and other library components such as social media or analytic tools,” Ryan Smith, Mojave’s lead threat engineer, explained in a blog post.
Based on the analysis of more than 11 million URLs to which mobile apps connect to, Mojave Threat Labs determined that business users connect to at least as many data-gathering libraries as consumers. During its analysis, the company found that 65% of applications downloaded by business users connect to an advertising network, and 40% of them connect to a social network API.
“It is critically important that users and IT Administrators understand what data is being collected from their devices, where it is being sent, and how it is being used. Given that the majority of the sensitive data being collected occurs within these third party libraries such as ad networks, social media APIs, and analytics tools, it is therefore important to fully understand each of the libraries included in your mobile apps,” Smith noted.
Founded in San Mateo, CA in 2011, Mojave Networks raised a $ 5 million round of funding in November 2013, in addition to launching a cloud-based, enterprise-grade solution that protects mobile devices starting at the network level.
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