BlackBerry 10 Approved as Secure for Government Use

 BlackBerry 10 might not make it back into the consumer spotlight soon, but with Fed approval, RIM's devices may end up in the hands of government officials in need of secure communications. 

Is This Line Secure?

Due out in early 2013, RIM's BlackBerry 10 devices and OS need all the help they can get to reinvigorate the brand, raise consumer confidence and get something of a vibe going. Perhaps the image of clandestine agents toting their BB10s for secret messages, or seeing those in power wielding them to talk to "the man," or using them to solve the world's problems will help. 

That's because the US government has already given RIM approval for Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification. Meaning that BB10 devices and the back-end BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, have one useful stamp on them.

The technology used in them offers data encryption on both server and device, and as messages are passed on. That's what the Feds demand, so no unauthorised listeners can drop in on what's being sent. 

Too Little, Too Late?

Of course, this accreditation is nothing if the government (and the standard also applies north of the border in RIM's home country) doesn't end up buying them. And there's little guarantee that anyone will be rushing to buy BlackBerry devices next year. 

However, with no phone maker really grabbing the third spot in the market behind Apple and Samsung, there is a fair chance that RIM could still stage a comeback, particularly with its powerful enterprise following with secure collaboration needs. 

BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 is the key to keeping those IT managers happy and offers a great deal for those in admin. With consolidation of mobile device management, security, infrastructure, and app management from a unified web-based console, there's plenty to appeal to security concious businesses. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Huddle Security Measures Earns Company ISO 27001 Certification

Huddle, a provider of cloud-based content management and collaboration technology aimed at government agencies and large enterprises, has been awarded certification to ISO 27001, an international standard for information security management.

ISO 27001 covers areas including risk management and security, as well as business continuity management and compliance.

“ISO 27001 certification is part of our obsession with providing enterprise-class service,” Huddle VP of Enterprise Simon O’Kane told CMSWire during an interview. “It’s an emerging global standard as a benchmark for security processes, especially for delivery of services over the Internet.”

O’Kane said the British Standards Institution (BSI) certified “everything” in the Huddle organization, including customer-facing services as well as back-end development. Huddle determined about six months ago it wanted to achieve ISO 72001 certification and achieved it in about three months. “It was paramount for us,” he said. “Security is in our DNA.”

To that end, Huddle has also obtained pan-government accreditation in the UK.

ISO Certification Signals Security is Under Control 

According to Richard Edwards, principal analyst at Ovum, ISO 27001 certification sends a “clear signal that information security management is under control of management rather than an IT artifact.” Edwards said in a phone conversation with CMSWire that at many organizations, the IT department must shoulder the responsibility of maintaining IT security.

“That’s fine to a point, but IT security shouldn’t be an area exclusively handed off by senior management,” stated Edwards.

Edwards said that increasingly, major global players in the enterprise space such as Google Apps for Business, Microsoft Global Foundation Services and Yammer are obtaining ISO 27001 certification. In addition, many European companies, especially in the UK, and Japanese companies are seeking the certification. But US companies are lagging to their disadvantage.

“The US is slow to pick up ISO 27001, and the US will get blindsided,” said Edwards. 

Huddle Cuddles Feds

Huddle has been busy recently obtaining certifications that prove its dedication to security. In September, Huddle obtained certification by the Federal Information Security Management Act for a new cloud service for U.S. government agencies to communicate across the web.

Already widely used by western European governments, the secure Huddle platform is currently being developed for the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). This achievement for Huddle is down to a strategic partnership and technology development agreement with In‐Q-­Tel (IQT), a non-­profit, strategic investment firm that identifies solutions to support U.S. intelligence.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

HR + Social = Like

 Social is big, and getting bigger.

Social is sweeping into the enterprise with astonishing speed. Corporations, government agencies and nonprofits are using social tools such as blogs, wikis and Twitter-like activity streams to collaborate internally, with both customers and the general public. It's an undeniable trend and it's quickly picking up speed.

The opportunity is immense. Most enterprise technology is in the business of automating human tasks: taking the creativity out of work and replacing it with rigid, formal process. Social software does just the opposite; it fosters, encourages and empowers the natural creativity of human beings working with each other towards a common goal.

Yvette Cameron of Constellation Research describes it this way:

For the first time, technologies are becoming available that better align the way people naturally work and think. As humans, we're social creatures. Until recently, technologies didn't really support that. A lot of the processes that we use in our business applications are about automating paperwork, as opposed to really fostering collaboration [and the] rapid discovery of information; getting to the people, content and the knowledge that's needed to get work done."

Enterprise social software is key to businesses of all sizes because it enables new relationships to be created amongst your employees. Classic examples where enterprise social software can help your company and your employees become more productive include: getting a question answered by the most knowledgeable person, joining a new cross-functional team or getting help resolving a complex customer problem.

Who Owns Social in the Enterprise?

Most enterprise technologies have natural owners inside the enterprise. Sales owns sales force automation. Finance owns the financial software. Marketing owns marketing automation. It’s not exactly rocket science.

But social software is different. It doesn’t map to a single business process. Social software is all about unlocking the potential of all employees across an entire organization — whether they’re in Sales, Marketing, R&D, Product, Support, Operations or whatever.

While social software may be new, human beings aren’t. We've been walking the earth for about 200,000 years, give or take. What's new is that for the first time we have the tools to collaborate effectively at large scale, without the benefit of physical proximity; and when we collaborate, each of our efforts becomes exponentially more valuable because we build on each other.

Large organizations are also nothing new, and for the past hundred or so years most of them have created a special group whose sole purpose is to optimize for the value of its people. This group is called Human Resources, but is better known as HR.

HR and enterprise social software were made for each other. Both are in the same business of making talent more productive.

“Aha!” you say, “But isn’t everyone in the enterprise trying to make talent more productive? So really each line of business should own social for itself!”

But remember that enterprise social is all about network effects. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter succeed precisely because everyone is on the same platform. People participate in the network because everyone else is participating. There’s no solution without scale. And the same is true in the enterprise. It’s only when we get everyone on a common platform that companies can offer a compelling value proposition.

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com

Acquia Cloud Wins Government Approval with FISMA Certification for Secure Websites

Cloud services provider and major Drupal partner Acquia has won U.S. government certification for providing secure Web services, the company's latest step in its march toward giving customers a measured level of protection and control.

Acquia won SSAE 16 (SOC1) certification in June, and the latest move not only provides the company access to the lucrative world of increased government contracts, but also signals it is serious about standards. 

What is FISMA?

Acquia is now approved under the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 to provide secure Web services in the cloud, a key process for highly sensitive customers like the government. 

Specifically, Acquia is a FISMA Authorization to Operate (ATO) approved vendor, and that means federal agencies can more easily redesign their Drupal Websites while maintaining stringent security standards and cost efficiencies.

The White House uses Drupal for its Website, as does NASA and the FCC. 

Acquia says it is the first provider to offer an enterprise class Drupal hosting service that is FISMA moderate certified. Acquia Cloud uses Amazon EC2, and that system had already won FISMA Moderate ATO certification. 

“This effort demonstrates Acquia’s commitment to exceeding our Federal customers high expectations for security and availability in the cloud," Mike Lemire, Acquia’s director of information security said.

The Importance of Standards

Cloud provider Huddle also recently won FISMA approval, but the company had already been popular among European governments. IBM's SmartCloud for Government is FISMA approved, as is Google's Apps for Government.

FISMA provides a framework for government IT purchasing and security protocols, but it also gives potential customers a chance to see how rigorous a company's products are. It might be painful for companies like Huddle and Acquia to go through the certification process, but once they are through it, potential new customers have a new window into those companies' internal processes. 

However, FISMA and SSAE 16 are narrow standards with somewhat limited applicability. IT buyers of all stripes really need more broad based standards to avoid combing through the virtually endless world of Web based apps now available. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Huddle Cuddles the Feds for Secure Collaboration

 Is there such a thing as secure collaboration? That's what Huddle is aiming for with a new FISMA-approved cloud service for U.S. government agencies to communicate across the web. 

Collaborating Behind Closed Doors

Being certified by the Federal Information Security Management Act is a great way to open doors within government, even if they slam tightly closed again once you're through. Huddle has a version of its popular collaboration platform approved and certified for this level of use, allowing the U.S. intelligence community and other agencies to worth together and share information across the cloud in a secure fashion. 

Already widely used by western European governments, the secure Huddle platform is currently being developed for the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) and  the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). This achievement for Huddle is down to a strategic partnership and technology development agreement with In‐Q-­Tel (IQT), a non-­profit, strategic investment firm that identifies solutions to support U.S. intelligence.

Developing for the Man 

Of course, the battle for government money is intense and there are plenty of competitors in the secure space, with IBM's SmartCloud for Government (which is also FISMA compliant) a major player. Of course, this market isn't all hush-hush as Google and Microsoft had a good old argument about the level of accreditation for their products last year. 

While likely a tiny drop in the $78+ trillion Federal IT budget, (you can view more on that mammoth entity at the Federal IT Dashboard), these deals will help raise Huddle's profile and help it secure further government work. 

As government departments move away from developing or contracting for their own costly, non-functional solutions, and start adopting and adapting off-the-shelf products that can be fortified to suitable security levels, more and more cloud services could play a part in helping make the government more agile and communicative among its departments. 

Back in the Enterprise

For the rest of us users, Huddle keeps on updating its core products with new features and improvements. Most recently, we've seen the addition of a single view of files for enterprise users, and the arrival of the inevitable iPad app. 

This comes on the back of a recent funding boost back in May, that gave the company an additional US$ 24 million to work with. As M&A activity starts to rise after Microsoft's acquisition of Yammer, will someone major now be looking at Huddle as a cloud collab partner?

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com