BlackBerry Limited has announced that the Singapore Muslim Women’s Association (PPIS) has deployed BlackBerry Protect to secure endpoints throughout its 16 centres in Singapore.
Delivered by partner ACE Pacific Group, BlackBerry’s endpoint security solution was chosen by PPIS to safeguard the delivery of trusted community services during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
A nonprofit social welfare organization relied on by Muslim women of all ages in Singapore, PPIS has provided much needed support throughout the global health crisis. Restrictions enforced to curb the spread of COVID-19 have created additional challenges for many, including financial difficulty, job loss, and the pressures of living in close quarters.
The 16 PPIS centres across the island have remained open during the pandemic, with social workers, counsellors and teachers offering family and children services, including counselling on family violence and marital issues, infant care and playgroup, and before- and after-school programs for children aged 7 to 14.
PPIS also launched temporary initiatives and a new Women in Need fund to provide financial support for basic needs and provide seed money for budding female entrepreneurs.
To ensure the ongoing provision of its services and the confidentiality of client data, PPIS recognized that it needed to improve its cybersecurity posture. In 2019, PPIS experienced a series of phishing attacks that demonstrated the organization’s existing antivirus software was no longer effective at protecting against today’s cyber threats.
A breach of client information could have not only put clients at risk but also have major ramifications if the organization violated Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act.
“We needed to streamline endpoint management so we could focus on projects that help PPIS meet its strategic goals for digital transformation,” said Thariq Aziz Abdul Hamid, PPIS Information Technology Manager, “BlackBerry Protect is performing exactly as we’d hoped, and we’re planning to add BlackBerry Optics for Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) to our security stack in the near future. Our endpoints are secure, our users are happy, and we have time to work on new projects.”
“BlackBerry strongly believes in giving back to the communities in which we operate,” said Stephen Mak, Vice President, Asia Pacific at BlackBerry Spark. “Together with ACE, we are proud to have helped PPIS move successfully from a traditional AV model to an AI-driven, preventative approach to threat management– ensuring the organisation is able to control the chaos of today’s complex cybersecurity environment and focus on their important work.”
