BlackBerry explains how the Priv makes Android more secure

BlackBerry is on the cusp of releasing its first Android-powered smartphone. The Priv, which CEO John Chen says represents “BlackBerry’s heritage and core mission of protecting our customers’ privacy,” will be available sometime later this year.

The 5.4-inch curved QWERTY slider has been heavily leaked, and glimpsed briefly in an official hands-on by the company itself. Under the Priv’s hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, a 3,410mAh battery, 18-megapixel camera with dual flash, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. In addition, the Priv will run a modified version of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with added security features.

Today, BlackBerry took to its company blog to give further explanation of it made the Android platform secure. “Building on decades of experience securing mobile devices and years of experience integrating Android technologies, the brand new PRIV by BlackBerry is the perfect smartphone for businesses and consumers looking for productivity, privacy and security,” said the blog post.

BlackBerry outlined six core features that ensured the Priv will be secure:

• BlackBerry’s Hardware Root of Trust, a unique manufacturing process that injects cryptographic keys into the device hardware, providing a secure foundation for the entire platform.
• Verified Boot and Secure Bootchain, which uses the embedded keys to verify every layer of the device from hardware to OS to applications in order to make sure they haven’t been tampered with.
• A hardened Linux kernel with numerous patches and configuration changes to improve security.
• FIPS 140-2 compliant full disk encryption on by default to protect your privacy.
• The BlackBerry Infrastructure, a secure distributed global network that transmits petabytes of encrypted data to and from the world’s most powerful leaders and professionals.
• BES12, the leading Enterprise Mobility Management platform used by the world’s most powerful governments and corporations.

There is still no indication of when the device will be available to purchase, but earlier today a Bell flyer hinted at its imminent release. We’ll likely see it before the end of November.

[source] BlackBerry [/source]