(ERM) solutions, today unveiled a major release of its Liquid Machines Gateway for the BlackBerry® Enterprise Solution from Research In Motion (RIM). The Liquid Machines Gateway for BlackBerry enterprise customers adds advanced features that allow them to control access to, and usage of, mobile communications that have been protected using Microsoft Windows Rights Management Services (RMS). BlackBerry® smartphone users can now send and receive RMS protected messages and attachments using the same RMS policies available in Microsoft Outlook.

Mobile access to real-time communications and data risks the loss of confidential enterprise information such as intellectual property and other trade secrets. To solve this problem, the Liquid Machines Gateway extends Microsoft RMS information protection to a BlackBerry smartphone in conjunction with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, enabling customers to persistently protect emails and attachments with encryption and usage controls that travel with the data. This persistent protection ensures that mobile communications, which may include executive and board communications, customer data, intellectual property and human resources information, can only be viewed by authorized users.

"Liquid Machines was the first BlackBerry® Alliance member to deliver Microsoft RMS support to the BlackBerry platform, and with this release we significantly raise the bar for usability and scalability," said Ed Gaudet, senior vice president of corporate development and marketing. "Our mutual customers now can enjoy the productivity of a BlackBerry smartphone with enhanced, persistent protection of confidential emails and documents safeguarding their mobile workforce from data loss."

Unlike some mobile data protection tools that only secure the data at rest on the device or during transmission, Liquid Machines persistently protects emails and attachments at the user-level by restricting unauthorized actions such as view, forward, reply, select/paste, and can automatically expire content based on corporate usage and retention policies.

"Mobile data protection (MDP) systems and procedures are needed to protect user privacy and to comply with audit requirements, and every company must include MDP in its IT operations plan," said Gartner Research Vice President Ray Wagner. "MDP for notebooks and smaller handheld devices (PDAs and smartphones) is a rapidly growing market that began with basic data encryption and has expanded beyond hard drives and local files to encompass external data device controls and rights management. Interest in data protection is fuelled by liability and privacy concerns. Civil and criminal penalties for data leaks, and pressure to disclose leaks, are also growing in other countries. Even if information is not misused, negative public reaction is expensive and embarrassing, and it damages buyer and investor confidence."⁽¹⁾

Liquid Machines enables users to protect new or previously unprotected messages with RMS policies directly from a BlackBerry smartphone. Major new and enhanced features in the Liquid Machines Gateway for RMS 7.0 include:
--  Persistently Protects Messages on the BlackBerry Smartphone: Emails protected with RMS policies are persistently encrypted on the BlackBerry smartphone. This added protection prevents the loss of confidential data inadvertently or through malicious intent. Additional enforcement capabilities block the leakage of sensitive data via copy/paste or sending emails outside of the corporate network. Off-line access to encrypted emails is supported.

1. Enhances Security for PIN-to-PIN Messaging:  Each BlackBerry smartphone ships with a unique personal identification number (PIN). BlackBerry smartphones support direct PIN-to-PIN emailing; if the recipient PIN is known, the user can send an email directly to the PIN instead of the email address. PIN-to-PIN messages are not encrypted and therefore risk data loss. For those emails protected with RMS policies, Liquid Machines enhances the protection by re-encrypting any protected message that is sent via PIN-to-PIN or SMS communications, thus rendering it unreadable. This allows companies to allow PIN-to-PIN and SMS communications while preventing the loss of RMS-protected confidential data on the same device.
2. Blocks Copy/Paste Operations: Liquid Machines prevent users from circumventing security parameters by copying important data from a protected email or file and pasting it into another message or document.
3. Enforces Expiration of Emails:  This ensures that messages can be electronically expired on the BlackBerry smartphone. The message sender can set the time of expiration directly from their BlackBerry smartphone.
4. Supports latest BlackBerry Platform: The Liquid Machines Gateway supports  BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 4.1.6 running on Windows 32- and 64-bit servers with support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and BlackBerry® client software 4.5.
5. Works with International Character Sets: The Liquid Machines Gateway and client software for BlackBerry smartphones is locale independent; that is, they support non-ASCII text characters for text bodies and file attachments. They support the same code pages the BlackBerry® operating system supports.

Availability and Pricing

The Liquid Machines Gateway for BlackBerry enterprise customers is available now. Pricing is available by calling the Liquid Machines at 1-781-693-3600.


About Liquid Machines

Liquid Machines is a leading provider of enterprise rights management (ERM) solutions that prevent the misuse, modification, loss or theft of intellectual property and sensitive information. By applying access and usage controls to the data itself, electronic information is persistently protected while at rest, in transit and in use -- empowering employees to securely collaborate and work with native file formats and applications. Liquid Machines enables global companies in the financial services, government, manufacturing, retail and healthcare industries to protect intellectual property regardless of where it goes, generating detailed access and usage reports that demonstrate compliance with privacy and industry regulations. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Liquid Machines is privately held and is backed by Atlas Venture, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Goldman Sachs & Co, Masthead Venture Partners and RRE Ventures.


Information Source:    Marketwire