Blackberry buys Cylance to create software for autonomous cars
BlackBerry bought artificial intelligence and cyber security company Cylance for $1.4 billion in cash. The acquisition was first brought up in November 2018 in a bid to assist with plans to create software for autonomous cars. Cylance is a cyber-security firm, based in California that makes use of artificial intelligence in order to end cyber attacks
BlackBerry’s reason for buying Cylance
BlackBerry is a Canadian company that conquered the mobile phone market before the creation of the iPhone and revolved around software that steers mobile devices. Additionally, Blackberry acquired Cylance because it also keeps a track of developing technologies in the cyber security industry.
Statement from Executive Chairman and CEO of Blackberry
John Chen, executive chairman and CEO of Blackberry stated, “Today BlackBerry took a giant step forward toward our goal of being the world’s largest and most trusted AI-cyber security company,” Further, he added Securing endpoints and the data that flows between them is absolutely critical in today’s hyper connected world. By adding Cylance’s technology to our arsenal of cyber security solutions, we will help enterprises intelligently connect, protect and build secure endpoints that users can trust.”
Statement from President of Blackberry Cylance
According to Stuart McClure, now the president of BlackBerry Cylance, there are no job cuts but he would “continue to apply his visionary math-based approach to threat detection, prevention and response, as well as lead the business’ large team of highly skilled engineers and data scientists.”
Statement from VP Engineering of BlackBerry
BlackBerry Engineering VP Rupen Chanda talks about the large quantity of data that needs to be administered and secured in order for connected cars to operate securely. He says “It is hard for most people to really imagine the staggering amounts of data that need to be sorted, parsed and secured to make connected cars – and eventually autonomous cars – really ready for the road,”. Further, he added “We’re talking about literally hundreds of millions of lines of code – and automakers will be responsible for making sure it is all up to industry standards and secured against attacks from cybercriminals. And, of course, able to run, flawlessly, in real time, while a car is traveling anywhere from 30 to 80 miles per hour.”
Rupen Chanda believes that the cyberattacks are factual and approaching autonomous cars, and there’s no question if or when the cybercriminals will attack car systems. He said that cybercriminals were already putting their efforts towards cracking car systems and would continue to do so as long as cars are connected and progressively sustained by software.
Also Read: Proxies for Cybersecurity Management in Organizations: Why is it Needed?
