BlackBerry users will soon have new and improved AI-powered security thanks to the company’s latest acquisition.
This week, BlackBerry announced that it has acquired Cylance — an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) firm — for $1.4 billion. According to BlackBerry CEO John Chen, this merger will help BlackBerry’s enterprise customers in sectors where top-notch cybersecurity is imperative.
“Cylance’s leadership in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity will immediately complement our entire portfolio, UEM and QNX in particular,” he said, referring to BlackBerry’s unified endpoint management tools and the Unix-like operating system the company acquired in 2010.
Cylance’s expertise will also be particularly helpful in the healthcare sector. The usage of AI and and ML in healthcare cybersecurity is rapidly increasing alongside the growth of of IoT. Mobile devices are becoming a major part of healthcare network systems and more and more patients want access to their data.
However, with increased access comes the increased vulnerability to cyberattacks — especially if companies are not careful. Some government officials have even passed legislation requiring IoT manufacturers to make cybersecurity a priority.
BlackBerry’s latest acquisition isn’t the company’s first attempt to up their cybersecurity game. For example, in January it developed Jarvis: A software system designed to protect cars from hackers.
Cylance specializes in apprehending security breaches and its technology predicts and prevents known and unknown threats to fixed endpoints. This California-based company could help shape the way enterprises look at cybersecurity in this new era of data management, according to IoT experts.