BlackBerry takes steps to help employees, customers and partners through COVID-19 outbreak

As the world continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Executive Chairman & CEO at BlackBerry, John Chen recently laid out the steps his organization is taking to help contirube to finding solutions and combatting the outbreak.

As a global community, we are facing unprecedented and uncertain times. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted life as we have known it. As we fight this fight together, I wanted to reach out and update you on the steps BlackBerry is taking to contribute to the solution. Our priority remains the community we serve, including our employees, our customers, and our partners.

We have asked all employees to refrain from travelling and to work from home, to help protect everyone's health and safety. This transition has been smooth and we continue to deliver 24x7x365 security, availability, and service to you.

We are ensuring every organization around the world has access to the same secure connectivity tools BlackBerry employees are equipped with to work remotely, including BlackBerry UEM, BlackBerry Desktop, BlackBerry 2FA, BlackBerry SecuSUITE, BBM-E and BlackBerry PROTECT. The solutions have been made available free of charge for 60 days, enabling businesses to continue their operations as they take steps to contain the spread of COVID-19.

We are using BlackBerry AtHoc to keep up to date on the status and health of our employees. We have deployed the same emergency notification and situation management solution to state and local governments to coordinate their response and communicate with citizens. This software has also been made available to you and any other organization that requires it, at no cost for 60 days.

Furthermore, we have turned our events into virtual events to enable everyone to participate and engage in the community while following social distancing guidelines.

Recent weeks have demonstrated how connected we are to one another and the importance of community during challenging times. I am thankful to you and everyone else who is contributing to the solution, especially the selfless people working tirelessly on the front lines, and grateful that BlackBerry is able to play a part.

As always, we have your back and are here to support you, your teams and your business as needed.

If you are aware of others that our technology can be of service to at this time, please contact us.

Sincerely,

John Chen

Executive Chairman & CEO, BlackBerry

BlackBerry is among the organizations which supply solutions ideally suited to help out in these times and it's great to see them not only stepping up and offering the solutions free of charge but also extending their hand to help others when and where they can.

Press Release

BlackBerry to Help Enable Remote Working Initiatives, Announces Free Availability of Secure Communication Solutions

BlackBerry Desktop, SecuSUITE for Government, BlackBerry AtHoc and BlackBerry Protect Available at No Charge for 60 Days

WATERLOO, Ontario, March 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) today announced it will be offering businesses additional assistance in implementing their own remote working programs, at no cost. Recognizing the gravity of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, BlackBerry is committed to helping its current customers and other companies support their business continuity plans and remote working policies by enabling a secure, productive and connected environment for workers. This includes quick onboarding and enablement that can be delivered remotely with our services.

As part of this commitment, BlackBerry will be offering a range of its secure communication solutions for enterprises – free of charge for a 60-day period – in order to help manage and secure employees in the ways they are most likely to be working. These mission critical solutions include:

BlackBerry Desktop: To continue to enable secure and productive remote working practices, companies will be able to access this solution for a simple way to onboard and offboard employees as work policies shift. Whether this is through a personal laptop, desktop or mobile and tablet device, the ability to provide secure remote access across any device is paramount. The solution provides customers with:
- Secure connectivity within a containerized environment, along with simple access to key productivity apps along with a secure browser for web based corporate apps, eliminating the need for individual VPN access
- Increased secure collaboration through the integration of BlackBerry Dynamics with Zoom and Cisco Webex, allowing for the immediate securitization of web meetings when employees connect from their phones or tablets
- Simple data path controls which securely route traffic through firewalls, while simultaneously keeping internal and SaaS data within a secure containerized environment
- Quick onboarding by allowing IT to provide a single access key to employees, which will allow workers to access corporate resources with a single sign-on and keep personal applications separate
SecuSUITE for Government and Enterprises for Secure Messaging and Phone Calls: Enabling high security voice and messaging across iOS and Android environments so government bodies, first responders, law enforcement, healthcare providers, and enterprises can enable workers to continue with activities that require the highest level of security. Customers will have access to secure communications with uncompromised usability, allowing employees to make secure phone calls, exchange secure messages using the devices workers already own.
BlackBerry AtHoc for Employee Safety: Allowing organizations globally to unify their crisis communications, BlackBerry AtHoc enables companies to offer a level of protection for their staff and give leadership the information they need to make critical safety decisions, including capabilities such as:
- Pre-configured Enterprise Package for Employee Safety
- Rapidly alert recipients via SMS, mobile app, voice calls, and secure email
- Easily target notification recipients by location or groups
- Access live on-line "Ask the Trainer" sessions
BlackBerry Protect: Advanced endpoint protection using AI to prevent breaches and provide added controls for safeguarding against sophisticated threats.

"This is an unprecedented time. Organizations have worked quickly to ensure the safety of their employees through enabling remote work policies, however many of those people are new to working from home, which poses its own challenge," said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO of BlackBerry. "Our hope is that we can play our part, through our world-class BYOD security solutions, to enable companies impacted by the global pandemic – whether they are currently our customer or not – to remain successful by maintaining continuity of operations, communications, productivity, and security."

BlackBerry Desktop, SecuSUITE for Government, BlackBerry AtHoc for Employee Safety and BlackBerry Protect will be available free for 60 days. Those interested can contact your BlackBerry representative or email us at [email protected]

About BlackBerry

BlackBerry (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world. The company secures more than 500M endpoints including 150M cars on the road today. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company leverages AI and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, safety and data privacy solutions, and is a leader in the areas of endpoint security management, encryption, and embedded systems.