Pentagon enhances network security with a little help from Canada’s BlackBerry 

The agency responsible for safeguarding the Pentagon and several other buildings in the capital of the United States is turning to Waterloo, Ont.’s BlackBerry Limited to secure its network.

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency has signed a one-year contract with BlackBerry to provide the agency to provide the agency with messaging and emergency notification as well as internal and external alerts services. The PFPAT will use of BlackBerry’s AtHoc Networked Crisis Communications Suite.

AtHoc, a division of BlackBerry Limited, is a recognized leader in networked crisis communication. AtHoc’s suite of integrated applications provides a seamless and reliable exchange of critical information among organizations, their people, and devices.

The PFPA is a civilian agency within the United States Department of Defense. It is charged with safeguarding the occupants, visitors, and infrastructure of the Pentagon building and sixty-nine other defense installments in the National Capitol Region. The PFPA works with officers of the United States Pentagon Police, anti-terrorism, and protective services agents, plus threat management agents including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives technicians.

Before implementing AtHoc, important resources inside the Pentagon were not connected to a common messaging and emergency notification network, and the PFPA was unable to effectively communicate directly with organizations outside the Pentagon building during a crisis, according to BlackBerry.

AtHoc has enabled the PFPA to establish secure alerting and permission-based crisis communications internally and among numerous external organizations.

“We are honored by the continued trust in AtHoc by the Pentagon towards protecting its personnel,” said Guy Miasnik, president of BlackBerry’s AtHoc Division. “Their trust in AtHoc reinforces a shared mission for early warning, personnel accountability and cross-organization information sharing during times of crisis.”

The renewed one-year contract between BlackBerry’s AtHoc and the Pentagon Force Protection Agency includes multi-year options extending through 2020. The agreement includes 37,000 Department of Defense users, including Enterprise Alerting for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Defense Security Services, and the DoD’s Washington Headquarters Services.