HomeNews & PressFoxboro, MA — October 24, 2005

Utimaco sounds the all-clear: Secure Communications for blackberry devices available

New Version of SafeGuard® PushMail Security Solution Puts Email Security in Customer’s Hands

Foxboro, MA — October 24, 2005 – Against the backdrop of the recently-flared debate about the BlackBerry wireless platform and its security, Utimaco today announced the debut of the solution to the problem: its latest SafeGuard® PushMail security technology. SafeGuard PushMail now encrypts all e-mails sent to and from BlackBerry devices, preventing information from being read by unauthorized persons. Only the recipient can read and process the decrypted mail.

To date, BlackBerry vendor Research in Motion (RIM) has won more than 3.5 million users worldwide to its efficient and flexible e-mail solution. Most BlackBerry devices are used for business, professional, or other official purposes, making the need for security extremely high.

Although RIM has long used encryption to protect e-mail, some official agencies around the world, such as the German Federal Office for Information Technology Security (BSI), have identified certain security deficits as a result of RIM’s server structure. For example, the UK’s RIP Act (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000) authorizes British public authorities showing legal cause to access data at RIM’s European data centre in England.

As a result, a recent BSI report labeled “the architecture of Blackberry as unsuitable for the use in critical IT infrastructures of authorities and enterprises threatened by espionage.” Such deficiencies have created misgivings especially among international customers, who fear that eavesdropping of e-mails will be conducted for “reasons of national security.”

In response to this situation, Utimaco has developed SafeGuard PushMail, based on the company’s SecurE-Mail Gateway technology, to protect BlackBerry users and remove the security obstacles that stand in the way of many enterprise-class mobile computing projects. Utimaco’s latest SafeGuard solution puts the security and integrity of mail traffic in the customer’s hands; whereas it used to be possible to obtain full administrative access to the messaging server, and thereby to all of an organization’s mail contents, via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, e-mails are now encrypted before being stored on the customer’s mail server.

BlackBerry users always receive their e-mail encrypted with S/MIME and OpenPGP security standard. A recipient who does not use a BlackBerry device receives the e-mail either in encrypted or unencrypted form.

“SafeGuard PushMail ensures the necessary security against espionage and access by third parties for all BlackBerry users, since all the incoming and outgoing mails are encrypted on BlackBerry,” explains Craig Bumpus, Utimaco General Manager/U.S. “At the same time, our solution also delivers internal security in the enterprise network, since the e-mails are available there only in encrypted form. That prevents even internal access by unauthorized persons or viewing of them by system administrators.”

For additional information about Utimaco and SafeGuard PushMail, visit americas.utimaco.com/safeguard_pushmail.