BlackBerry Appoints Former U.S. Coast Guard CIO to Lead Forthcoming Federal Cybersecurity Operations Center

WATERLOO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov. 30, 2016) - BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ:BBRY)(TSX:BB), a global software leader in securing, connecting and mobilizing enterprises, announced today that Rear Admiral Robert "Bob" E. Day, Jr., U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.) will lead the company's forthcoming federal Cybersecurity Operations Center (CSOC) and product FedRAMP initiatives. The new center will guide BlackBerry products to achieve FedRAMP and Agency/Component Authority to Operate (ATO) certifications, as well as provide required monitoring, compliance reporting, and incident response to subscribing entities.

Rear Admiral Day has a distinguished 34-year career in Federal information technology and cybersecurity. His tenure at the Coast Guard included a variety of senior staff and command positions, with five years served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Commander of Coast Guard Cyber Command. Since retiring in 2014, he has been a key member of the AtHoc advisory board and highly engaged across the technology industry as an independent consultant.

"Bob Day has proven himself to be an invaluable asset to BlackBerry," said Iain Kennedy, Chief Information Officer for BlackBerry. "His knowledge of cybersecurity at the strategic and operations levels within military and civilian agency environments will help us develop and provide new FedRAMP certified cloud deployments of our products. We are honored that he is coming aboard full time to guide FedRAMP certification of our full product suite used today by many Federal agencies."

FedRAMP is a U.S. government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services used by federal agencies. FedRAMP's "do once, use many times" framework saves an estimated 30 to 40 percent of government costs while reducing the time and staff size required to conduct previously redundant agency security assessments.

About BlackBerry

BlackBerry secures, connects and mobilizes the enterprise. For today's enterprise of things, BlackBerry provides devices and a software platform that enables and manages security, mobility and communications between and among hardware, programs, mobile apps and the internet of things. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry operates in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The Company trades under the ticker symbols "BB" on the Toronto Stock Exchange and "BBRY" on the NASDAQ. For more information, visit www.BlackBerry.com.

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