BlackBerry Ltd. today announced a new integration that combines the managed detection and response protection of CylanceGUARD with secure critical event management powered by BlackBerry AtHoc.

The combination is designed to provide BlackBerry AtHoc features to CylanceGUARD subscribers. In the event of a cyberattack, subscribers get secure, multichannel internal and stakeholder communications for incident response actions. The service includes the ability to alert, communicate and collaborate from within the CylanceGUARD platform, even when the usual communications infrastructure is not available.

BlackBerry purchased Cylance for $1.4 billion in 2018. Although various products and features from Cylance have since been integrated with BlackBerry products, today’s announcement sees Cylance customers gaining additional access to BlackBerry services in the form of AtHoc, which itself was purchased by BlackBerry in 2015.

AtHoc is an interoperable customer experience management system used by over 75% of U.S. federal government employees for crisis communications and incident response. AtHoc users can quickly activate incident response plans, capture real-time information and rapidly deploy secure communication to specified groups.

The integration will allow those with limited information technology resources and a CylanceGUARD subscription to gain access to services previously available only to large, well-resourced entities. Organizations protected by CylanceGUARD can now send secure, out-of-band communications from within the CylanceGUARD dashboard to a globally distributed workforce and stakeholder groups using AtHoc.

The integration also allows administrators to manage the receipt and response of deployed communications and bring leaders together in protected communication channels. Escalation alerts will briefly describe and link to the escalation in the CylanceGUARD portal to speed analyst investigation and support.

“Organizations need to consider how they would communicate when their network is compromised,” John Giamatteo, president of BlackBerry Cybersecurity, said in a statement. “If email and chat services are down or can’t be trusted, how would they mobilize the right people to act and provide guidance across the company as the situation unfolds? Too often, secure and reliable communication is a critical missing element of cyber incident response that creates costly uncertainty and delays.”

CylanceGUARD with BlackBerry AtHoc CEM integration will be available to new and existing CylanceGUARD customers starting in May.

Photo: SimonQ/Flickr