Homeland Security Department Tasks BlackBerry to Develop Emergency Alert System

Canada-based cybersecurity company BlackBerry has secured a seven-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract from the Department of Homeland Security to build and sustain the Super Enterprise for Personnel Emergency Notification System.

American Systems and Four Points Technology will contribute to the software and services delivery, Blackberry said Wednesday.

BlackBerry said its AtHoc critical incident management solution will serve as the PENS communications solution for DHS employees and contractors. The company said its offering can be customized for each department component while delivering common functionality across the enterprise.

John Chen, BlackBerry CEO and chairman, noted that 75 percent of the federal government uses AtHoc. He added that the award reflects DHS’ confidence in his company’s capabilities.

In 2020, BlackBerry debuted AtHoc Managed Service to provide organizations with crisis communications capabilities. The offering is intended to safeguard clients’ employees and operations and enable business disruption management.

The company teamed up with Dedrone earlier in the year to integrate AtHoc into counter-drone systems to alert users when unauthorized unmanned systems enter certain zones.