Armour launches new flagship

Secure communications outfit Armour Communications is launching the latest version of its flagship product Armour Mobile at Cyber UK 2019 – the premier annual cybersecurity event run by the UK’s NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre).

Armour will be demonstrating full integration with Secure Chorus standards, to a live audience, with Leonardo, BAE Applied Intelligence and DSTL (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory). The interactive workshop, hosted by NCSC and Secure Chorus takes place on 24 April at 14.00 and is part of Stream G.

Armour Mobile v3.0 introduces new features including biometric authentication (fingerprint and facial recognition), and rapid ‘auto’ provisioning of new users using secure QR codes or encrypted links within emails. There is a host of additional improvements, including sending a secure voicemail or text note when a user is unable to accept a voice or video call; accessibility options such as user-defined text sizes; and MessageBurn has added sophistication – for example, a marker to alert the user if they failed to read a secure message before it has been ‘burned’.

The demonstration of interoperability in the Secure Chorus workshop will show how Armour Mobile can connect multiple groups or communities transparently to end users, maximising the ease with which they can communicate securely across different organisations. This is particularly useful where security requirements preclude these groups from merging their IT networks and, instead, provides a novel solution to allow them to collaborate securely on joint projects.

David Holman, Director at Armour Comms ,commented; “For enterprise security to be effective it needs to be transparent to the end user. With this in mind, Armour Mobile v3.0 has been developed to include many new features that significantly enhance usability. The new auto-provisioning facility means that Armour Mobile can now be deployed on a large scale, quickly with minimal overhead for IT, security and the end-user.

“Interoperability is a key criteria for a communications app, and we are delighted to be able to demonstrate how Armour Mobile is able to work across user communities, so that even where a different Key Management System (KMS) is in use, the end user only needs to know a colleague’s secure contact number to be able to communicate with them securely.”

Armour Comms’ solutions for secure communications work on everyday smartphones, tablets and Windows 10 desktops. With the same usability as consumer-grade apps, and  with significantly enhanced security, Armour Mobile supports voice calls, video calls, one-to-one and group messaging, voice and video conference calls, file attachments and sent/received/read message status. 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 at a given time after sending, according to confidentiality.

Using a FIPS 140-2 validated crypto core, Armour Mobile has been awarded many other certifications including CPA (Commercial Product Assurance) from the NCSC and is included in the NATO Information Assurance catalogue.