Category: News

Partnership with Nine23 provides users with easy to use, secure transparent communications and messaging while protecting enterprise data

London, 26 February 2019: Armour Communications, a leading provider of specialist, secure communications solutions, has announced that its solutions, Armour Mobile and Armour Desktop are now available on Nine23’s certified enterprise management platform, FLEX.  Armour Comms’ solutions will be offered via Nine23’s FLEX platform, which is accredited to handle information up to OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE, enabling enterprise users to securely use mobile, tablet, and laptop devices from any operating system including iOS, Android and Windows10.

Stuart McKean CEO of Nine23 said; “At Nine23 we work with Enterprise clients that operate in highly regulated environments and regard secure communications as necessary for everyday operations. They often have significant members of staff who need to be able to rely on a robust, secure environment to meet the needs of today’s modern mobile or remote working.

“Our proposition is to make it easy for users to access the technology that they need to do a day’s work. If it isn’t easy then they will go elsewhere, creating a potential security vulnerability. Armour Comms’ solutions offer the strength of security that our clients demand, while still being designed with the end user in mind. Platform FLEX is already accredited to connect to the PSN as a gateway provider and Armour’s technology adds value to our platform offering.” 

With its focus on interoperability Armour Mobile was the first secure communications app to connect to Skype for Business. Nine23’s FLEX platform also meets the entire management and audit requirements for Unified endpoint Management (UEM), App Store, Content Management and secure endpoint hosting.

David Holman, Director at Armour Comms commented; “Nine23 is an established provider of a secure cloud environment that enables enterprise mobility to a high security standard. Armour Comm’s partnership with Nine23 is an ideal way for enterprise end users, inside and external to an organisation, to communicate transparently within a secure and private, hosted environment. Our solutions are intuitive and easy to use and together with Nine23’s enterprise cloud platform provide a secure, robust platform for ultimate control of communications and associated meta data.”

Armour Comms Survey highlights alarming lack of awareness around mobile security

London, 29 January 2019: Armour Communications, a leading provider of specialist, secure communications solutions, has published the results from its Mobile Communications Survey. The findings revealed that a third (32%) of organisations use consumer grade apps such as WhatsApp, SMS and Skype for business communications.  Over two thirds (68%) use these apps regularly every day and over a third (36%) use the apps to discuss sensitive and confidential topics.

The Survey also asked respondents to select from a list of different well known technologies, hacks and viruses which could be used to target mobile phones – nearly half (44%) answered incorrectly.

David Holman, Director at Armour Comms commented; “We see stories in the press on a regular basis about data leakage, sensitive customer data that is hacked by criminals, and yet, for most organisations managing how their staff are using their mobile phones remains a challenge. Consumer-grade apps, where the user has little control of what happens to their data, are often downloaded and used within organisations for sharing sensitive information, almost by stealth, because the IT/security department has no visibility of the apps being used.”

While viruses and malware on mobile phones are rare, tools for eavesdropping, such as IMSI catchers are increasingly within the reach of criminals that want to spy on others. Accordingly to the latest research by Ponemon, organisations have a nearly 28% chance of having a data breach in the next two years. In another report, social engineering is involved in over 90% of data breaches, where people are tricked into doing something, like clicking a link or providing data, to someone impersonating someone else.

Another pitfall for the unwary mobile user is WiFi which is often not as secure as people assume. All of these type of attacks are particularly easy to do with mobile phones where standard network encryption can be poor to non-existent, due to outdated infrastructure that is in parts well over 40 years old and probably no longer fit for purpose. This makes interception of mobile calls and messages much easier than it should be, and the user would be totally unaware until it was too late.

“In our experience end-users don’t deliberately put data at risk, they simply want to get on with their work, and extra security can cause an issue. The results from this survey highlight the fact that many organisations are unaware of the pitfalls of using consumer grade-apps for handling sensitive corporate information, whether that is intellectual property and trade secrets, customer information, or details of commercial transactions.”

Olympia, 28 – 29 November 2018, Stand H10

CTO of Armour Comms addresses the key challenges and how to mitigate risks in the event of a cyberattack in Surveillance, Comms and Data tech workshop

London, 22 November 2018: Armour Communications, a leading provider of specialist, secure communications solutions, has announced that it will be showcasing its latest version of Armour Mobile in the Cyber Intelligence Zone at this year’s International Security Expo on 28-29^th November, at Olympia, stand H10. The Zone, which features the TechUK Pavilion, provides a platform for suppliers to demonstrate both physical & IT integration, including connected security devices and IOT, to counter the increasing threat of cyber-attacks. Armour Comms will be demonstrating its technology for secure communications solutions for voice, video, messaging and data on everyday smartphones, tablets and Windows 10 desktops. The latest version of Armour Mobile includes Mission Critical Push to Talk (MCPTT) – functionality that meets the requirements of public safety mission critical voice communication – and Message Burn, which limits the lifespan of confidential data with immediate or timed deletion.

On the second day of the event, Andy Lilly, CTO at Armour Comms, will be presenting in the Surveillance, Comms and Data technology workshop (Theatre 4, 14:55 – 15:10). His talk entitled; “Who you gonna call?” will cover the key challenges of secure communication, he will explain how ‘encrypted’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘secure’ and the importance of where metadata is stored.

“This event is a great opportunity to meet with IT and security leaders to discuss ways companies can mitigate the risks in the event of cyber attacks. It’s important for organisations to include in their recovery plan how they will communicate to restore operations and mitigate future risks without using the compromised platform.

“By protecting the communications of the IT and digital forensics team and using a secure communications platform, such as Armour Mobile, companies can block a useful source of information from being intercepted or modified by the hackers, helping faster recovery and minimising the risk and damage of a security breach,” said Lilly.

Attendees on Armour’s stand will also be able to participate in their latest industry survey (https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ArmourCommsAutumnSurvey), designed to capture information on the apps and services that organisations are using for secure communications. All responses submitted will have the opportunity to win a DJI Smart camera drone.

Armour recently successfully participated in a week of plugtesting for (MCPTT) protocols organised by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and The Critical Communications Association (TCCA) in Texas. The protocols are fully integrated into the Armour Blue solution and supports different use cases including emergency and blue light, police and law enforcement, covert ops and others. Message Burn limits the lifespan of sensitive data at rest, where users can set a time at which their messages are automatically deleted (or as the name implies, ‘burn’) on the recipient’s device, for immediate action after being read, or in the future, according to confidentiality.

Secure mobile communication solution, Armour Blue, successfully demonstrated interoperability at Global Plugtest for mission critical services (MCX)

London, 18 July 2018: Armour Communications, a leading provider of specialist, secure communications solutions, has successfully participated in a week of plugtesting organised by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and The Critical Communications Association (TCCA) in Texas. The capabilities of Mission Critical voice, video and data were put to the test during a week-long event of intensive testing of more than 300 combinations of vendors and equipment.

The second ETSI MCPTT Plugtests attracted a total of 31 vendors with 120 participants on site, plus support from remote labs. Observers from nine organizations based in the UK, France and the USA witnessed the execution of more than 2000 tests, based on a test plan with more than 100 test cases, with a 92 per cent success rate.

Armour Comms participated in testing for the 3GPP Release 14 Mission-Critical Push-To-Talk (MCPTT) protocols, which are fully integrated into the Armour Blue solution and supports different use cases including emergency and blue light, police and law enforcement, covert ops, and others.

“Interoperability is a crucial factor in the success of developing mission critical services and products,” commented David Holman, director at Armour Communications. “At Armour Comms our objective is to provide the most flexible secure communications platform and we are fully committed to working with the critical communications community to achieve a single, interoperable, global standard for our customers.”

Providing the same great user experience as Armour Mobile, Armour Blue enables operatives in the field to collaborate securely with each other and to communicate with colleagues back at base via the Armour Blue Dashboard. Calls can be managed centrally to determine priority, enabling a more streamlined approach when handling emergency situations.

The solution delivers a comprehensive range of communications features which include secure voice and video calls, one-to-one and group messaging, voice and video conference calls, file attachments and sent/received/read message status.  When switched to Armour Blue mode, users have a direct channel, always-on audio radio, where they do not need to dial a number to speak to others in the group.

Armour Blue is available for commercial off the shelf (COTS) devices which means there is no requirement for a ‘special’ phone, making deployment easier and more cost effective, and providing a greater level of anonymity for those in the field.  Using a FIPS 140-2 validated crypto core, Armour Mobile has been awarded many other certifications including Commercial Product Assurance (CPA) from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and is included in the NATO Information Assurance catalogue.

Interested in Armour Blue? Contact our sales team today.                sales@armourcomms.com 

Armour delivers even more control to the end user to safeguard communications involving sensitive information

London, 26 June 2018: Armour Communications, a leading provider of specialist, secure communications solutions, has announced availability of its latest innovation Armour Mobile Message Burn.  Message Burn limits the lifespan of sensitive data at rest. Users can set a time at which their messages are automatically deleted (or as the name implies, ‘burn’) on the recipient’s device. This can be either a future date and time, or an amount of time after the message has been read by the recipient and can be set as a default and altered message-by-message according to their confidentiality.

Armour provides a wide range of capabilities for secure communications which include:

Armour Mobile – secure calls, UK Government certified by NCSC for use at OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE and with additional security layers able to handle SECRET. Users can switch between Voice and Video and back, mid-call.

Armour Desktop – extends the secure mobile communications capabilities of Armour Mobile via a Windows 10 softphone.

Unified Communications – Armour Mobile integrates with Skype for Business, enabling organisations to benefit from the reduced costs and increased flexibility of Voice over IP communications.

Armour Blue – which includes Push to Talk features designed for Blue Light services.

David Holman, director at Armour Communications said: “Message Burn is the latest in a long line of specialist security features for Armour Mobile, and has been developed as a direct result of listening to the requirements of our customers. At Armour we aim to provide the most flexible secure communications platform, while adhering to industry best practices and providing NCSC approved solutions for security-conscious organisations around the world.”

A UK government certified solution, Armour Mobile can be downloaded from the app stores and used on company issued or staff owned devices (BYOD). It is easily deployed and centrally managed either on the Armour secure cloud, or as a full on-premises installation, giving a completely secured and controlled solution.

Armour Mobile provides secure voice calls, video calls, one-to-one and group messaging, voice and video conference calls, file attachments and sent/received/read message status. Using a FIPS 140-2 validated crypto core, Armour Mobile has been awarded many other certifications including CPA (Commercial Product Assurance) from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and is included in the NATO Information Assurance catalogue.

Armour welcomes NCSC to Secure Chorus

London, UK, 30 April, 2018, Dr Andy Lilly, CTO of Armour Communications, has been elected as Chairperson of the Secure Chorus Technical Standards Committee.  Armour Comms are a founding member of Secure Chorus, which recently welcomed the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) into the organisation. Secure Chorus serves as a platform for public-private sector collaboration in developing a security baseline for secure multimedia communications: this is a key strand in the UK’s digital economy strategy, “to make the UK the safest place to live and do business online”, as regularly espoused by Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Culture and Sport (DCMS).

Dr Lilly commented: “In addition to the UK government’s requirement to protect OFFICIAL and OFFICIAL SENSITIVE communications, it is key that the resulting multimedia systems provide interoperability between different vendor systems, to support the creation of pan-government and pan-enterprise collaboration capabilities. The definition of suitable forward-looking technical standards is critical to enabling this interoperability and promoting the growth of the associated networks and services both across the UK and internationally.”

Armour has had a key role in Secure Chorus since the group’s formation, working to define and develop the underlying security technologies into products such as Armour Mobile, demonstrating how communications applications can be created that combine the ease-of-use of social media apps while providing the security and seat-of-trust needed by government, defence, finance, healthcare and enterprises who need to protect and control their mobile communications on off-the-shelf, commercial smartphones, tablets and desktops.

About the National Cyber Security Centre

• The UK Government is fully committed to defending against digital threats and set up the National Cyber Security Centre last year through the five-year National Cyber Security Strategy, supported through £1.9 billion transformative investment.

• The NCSC provides a single, central body for cyber security at a national level and is the UK’s technical authority on cyber. It manages national cyber security incidents, carries out real-time threat analysis and provides tailored sectoral advice.

• GCHQ is the parent body for the Centre, meaning that it can draw on the organisation’s world-class skills and sensitive capabilities.

About Secure Chorus Ltd

• Secure Chorus is a not-for-profit, membership organisation, serving as a platform for public-private collaboration and development of common standards and capabilities for secure communication for the global digital economy.

For more information visit www.securechorus.org and follow the company on LinkedIn and Twitter.

  

London, 24 April 2018: Armour Communications and Metro Communications have joined forces to help businesses and VIPs keep their calls, messages and data private and confidential.

Armour Mobile enables secure collaboration between trusted colleagues when discussing commercially sensitive information such as corporate deals, intellectual property matters, financial transactions, customer negotiations or for VIP’s the details of their day to day lives.

Armour Mobile prevents mobile communications including voice, messaging, file transfers, video or even conferencing from being intercepted by illicit or unwarranted surveillance, keeping both conversations and associated data private. Importantly, Armour Mobile can provide this not just in a local environment, but also for the corporate traveller keeping communications secure even when using untrusted networks, anywhere in the world.

David Holman, a director at Armour Communications commented; “Armour Comms is committed to working with our partners to  deliver secure mobile communications on every day devices to businesses and high profile individuals. Metro Communications brings a solid track record of dealing with corporate executives and high profile individuals and doing so in a discerning, confidential and trusted manner. We are delighted to partner with Metro Communications and look forward to delivering our  secure mobile solutions to Metro Communications customers.”

Armour Mobile provides secure voice calls, video calls, one-to-one and group messaging, voice and video conference calls, file attachments and sent/received/read message status. Using a FIPS 140-2 validated crypto core, Armour Mobile has been awarded many other certifications including CPA (Commercial Product Assurance) from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and is included in the NATO Information Assurance catalogue.

Peter Matthews, CEO of Metro Communications, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Armour Communications to provide a world-class service to our customers – businesses and high-profile individuals. Organised criminals, lone-wolf hackers and state-sponsored organisations are accessing private phone calls, messages and data sent from mobile phones. This is a very real threat, and it will only increase. Armour Mobile has been certified by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and approved by NATO. This powerful, user-friendly app removes many security concerns for businesses and VIPs, giving them complete peace of mind.”

Metro Communications provides only the highest quality telecommunications and IT solutions to people and businesses. Metro customers who pass strict security checks can now use Armour Mobile to keep their communications as they should be – secure and confidential.

SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 17, 2018 – Five British cyber security companies will showcase their ground-breaking products and services to the US market at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on April 16-20, 2018.

The companies will demonstrate their innovative solutions in a broad range of cyber security requirements – such as the protection of critical assets and infrastructure, prevention and detection of cybercrime, as well as their commitment to cutting-edge research – at the UK Pavilion and through a series of ancillary events, with the support of the UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT). The companies look to develop close partnerships and forge lasting relationships that will support the US cyber security sector in its aims of securing the safety of the nation.

• Armour Communications will show a new Message Burn capability for Armour Mobile, which gives users the ability to set a burn time for particularly sensitive messages.
• Bob’s Business will demonstrate its specialty in developing and delivering information security awareness campaigns.
• iProov will demonstrate its new HTML5, no-app mobile web solution, which won the Best of Show Award at Finovate Europe.
• Garrison will showcase its unique Silicon Assured Video Isolation technology, which provides a game-changing platform for secure remote browsing.
• MetaCompliance will showcase its platform, which has the highest-quality cyber security and compliance e-learning content available on the market.

 

DIT will also partner with British Secure Mobile Gateway company Wandera to host a night focused on UK cyber excellence. The evening will feature Jane Frankland, a UK cyber security expert and author of the book IN Security, about why women in cyber security should be the standard and not the exception. She will remark on her 20+ years in the industry and host an exclusive book signing.

The UK’s cyber security industry, worth $31 billion and growing at a rate of 10% per year, is respected across the globe for its expertise, breadth of capabilities, and world-class advice, products and services.

Last month, DIT’s Secretary of State Dr. Liam Fox launched a new Cyber Security Export Strategy to promote the UK’s world-leading expertise and to strengthen defense capabilities in the UK and allied countries. Composed of approximately 800 innovative companies, the UK cyber sector currently exports $2.1 billion worth of technology and services per year, a number anticipated to grow in line with the overall global spend on cyber security products, expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2021. This new cyber security export strategy supports the ongoing work of the 2016 National Cyber Security Strategy, which invested in the cyber security industry to ensure the UK is secure, resilient to cyber threats, prosperous, and confident in the digital world.

Andrew Whittaker, Her Majesty’s Consul General to San Francisco, said:

“The UK government’s commitment to cyber security is clear. Our world-leading National Cyber Security Centre is now 18 months old and doing excellent work as the authoritative voice on information security in the UK, and the recently published Cyber Security Export strategy will help support British firms in overseas markets. The government’s $2.7 billion investment in its National Cyber Security Strategy will ensure that the UK continues to lead the development of cyber security capability across the world, and the five companies at RSA next week are fantastic exemplars of British excellence in this field.“