BlackBerry is beginning to license its security tech to hardware companies

Even if your next phone isn't a BlackBerry, BlackBerry is hoping to have a presence on it. The company is beginning to license its security tech to third party hardware companies to be put inside phones and other smart devices.Its first deal, announced in September, was for phones and involved the Chinese company NTD, and today BlackBerry is announcing a new deal with Swiss company Punkt, known for its minimalist cellphone.
What Punkt will usu BlackBerry's tech for isn't stated, but BlackBerry's announcement suggests it will be use mor broadly than just on phones, indicating it'll likely end up on some sort of lo T device. Punkt doesn't make all that many product - electronics-wise, it's really just the one phone - so it's not all clear what we should expect.

BlackBerry stopped making its own hardware in 2016 and has since shifted over to a licensing business, where the company sells its branding and software and lets others handle the hardware. Last year's BlackBerry KeyOne, for instance, was made by TCL. This new licencing program, know as BlackBerry Secure, lets companies leverage BlackBerry's security credentials without completely hiding their branding. So Punkt could, for instance, sell a Punkt-branded phone that simply says ''BlackBerry Secure'' at some point when it starts up.

As for whether consumers should get exited about BlackBerry's security credentials in 2018, that question is little more open. BlackBerry does have good reputation for the security of  its devices, but BlackBerry no longer makes its own operating system - instead, it's trying to strengthen Android, which it doesn't have complete control over. And other companies make similar claims about securing Android, so its hard to tell how much BlackBerry is doing that other aren't.
To secure a phone, BlackBerry says it gets involved in the manufacturing process to sign and inject encrypted keys that allow the hardware and software to verify that it hasn't been tampered with. The company says it has ''hardened'' the Linux Kernel that Android runs on top of and fully encrypt's the system's storage. The company has also been good about putting out monthly software updates, which is itself a big enough improvement. BlackBerry also includes pre-installed apps that are meant to help users monitor the security of their devices.