Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the enterprise security software and services company BlackBerry Limited has announced the launch of BlackBerry Advanced Technology Development Labs (BlackBerry Labs). The company’s new business unit will be focusing on research and development (R&D) in the cybersecurity space, using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
According to a statement, BlackBerry chief technology officer (CTO) Charles Eagan will lead this initiative, which will include a team of over 120 software developers, researchers, system architects, product lead and security experts. These communications professionals will work together to identify, explore and create new technologies to ensure BlackBerry is on the cutting edge of security innovation.
The company stated that the initial projects from BlackBerry Labs will focus on machine learning approaches to security, in partnership with BlackBerry’s existing Cylance, Enterprise and QNX business units.
“The establishment of BlackBerry Labs is the latest in a series of strategic moves we’ve taken to ensure our customers are protected across all endpoints and verticals in the new IoT,” said Charles Eagan. “Today’s cybersecurity industry is rapidly advancing, and BlackBerry Labs will operate as its own business unit solely focused on innovating and developing the technologies of tomorrow that will be necessary for our sustained competitive success, from A to Z; artificial intelligence to zero trust environments.”
In addition, the announcement of BlackBerry’s new R&D lab is also being viewed as the company’s pursuit to make the most out of Cylance, the cybersecurity firm that BlackBerry acquired for USD 1.4 billion earlier this year. Charles Eagan said that BlackBerry Labs is all about following through on the company’s strategic emphasis on security.
“An initial focus for us is to take that expertise from the Cylance acquisition and bring that laterally into other teams within BlackBerry. So, there’s a lot of potential and a lot of need for security in the future,” said BlackBerry’s CTO.
