The deal will enable wider availability of BlackBerry cybersecurity solutions and services for organisations and reseller partners in Australia and New Zealand.

It will unite emt’s network of channel partners, MSPs and MSSPs and Blackberry’s suite of cybersecurity solutions powered by Cylance AI.

Under the agreement, emt Distribution will offer the full BlackBerry Cyber Suite, including CylancePROTECT, CylanceOPTICS and CylanceGUARD, a 24/7 managed extended detection and response (XDR) service.

emt’s technical engineers will be trained and certified by BlackBerry.

In addition, CylanceGUARD’s XDR capability addresses cyber-skills shortages faced by organisations today. It offers access to trained threat prevention experts and BlackBerry’s suite of AI-enabled cybersecurity tools on a subscription-based model.

“Partners like VARs, MSPs, MSSPs and SIs can grow their advanced cybersecurity businesses and services revenues, helping organisations save valuable time and resources.”

“By expanding our offering with BlackBerry’s intelligent, AI-powered solutions and external security teams, we can further help customers of any size improve their security posture with a prevention-first approach,” comments emt Distribution group executive Richard Rundle.

The news comes as guidelines were issued by the Five Eyes Alliance, followed by joint principles from the Quad Cybersecurity Partnership, urging stronger cybersecurity measures for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and their customers in the face of increasing threats.

BlackBerry in its 2022 Threat Report showed that malicious cyber actors are increasingly employing ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) and malware-as-a-service (MaaS) tools to execute high-impact attacks.

While no organisation is immune to a cybersecurity breach, SMEs are facing upwards of 11 to 13 cyber-attacks per device per day – higher than larger enterprises.

This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 2 June 2022.