BlackBerry Limited has announced new product enhancements to the endpoint protection platform (EPP) and endpoint detection and response (EDR) of the BlackBerry Spark platform, the company reported on Tuesday. 

"The addition of custom role-based access controls to BlackBerry's endpoint protection offering reduces risk by granularly defining and enforcing administrative permissions based on roles within an organization," said Michael Suby, research vice president, Security and Trust Products at IDC.

BlackBerry’s upgraded features include single-agent deployment, custom role-based access controls and accelerated incident investigation to reduce risk from cybersecurity threats with a unified endpoint security (UES) layer, which will deliver zero trust security. 

The single-agent deployment is managed from a central management console, allowing organizations to easily deploy both EPP capabilities with CylancePROTECT and EDR capabilities with CylanceOPTICS, leveraging the results of their security investment.

CylanceOPTICS will improve the threat prevention delivered with CylancePROTECT by utilizing AI to identify and prevent security incidents. BlackBerry customers will gain increased search parameter flexibility, alignment with the MITRE ATT&CK Framework and expanded automated response via CAE rules. 

"BlackBerry's AI-driven threat detection provides comprehensive attack surface protection, even against unknown malware," said Dominic Grillo, president at Atrion. "With the lightweight single agent we are able to automate detect and respond capabilities, and drive consistent levels of security throughout the organization."

With the integration, BlackBerry will offer improved registry introspection, DNS visibility, Windows logon event visibility , RFC1918 address space visibility, enhanced WMI introspection via Windows API and enhance PowerShell introspection via Windows API.

"With CylancePROTECT preventing malware, malicious scripts, rogue applications and fileless attacks from harming the business, CylanceOPTICS provides the AI-powered EDR capabilities required to keep data and businesses secure," said Thomas Pace, vice president, Global Enterprise Solutions at BlackBerry Cylance.

About BlackBerry

BlackBerry (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world. The company secures more than 500M endpoints including 150M cars on the road today. 

Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company leverages AI and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, safety and data privacy solutions, and is a leader in the areas of endpoint security management, encryption, and embedded systems. BlackBerry's vision is clear – to secure a connected future you can trust. 

BWX Technologies (BWXT) has successfully labeled technetium-99m (Tc-99m) derived from its proprietary molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) production process and its proprietary Tc-99m generators, utilizing cold kits, the company announced on Tuesday. 

“Our superior technology will improve continuity of supply for this vital diagnostic tool at a lower cost. Previous internal testing had proven that our technology meets the generic product specifications, and these latest results showed that our technology will be a drop-in replacement for existing generator,.” said Rex Geveden, BWXT’s president and chief executive officer.

BWXT will utilize cold kit labeling to achieve regulatory and commercial market acceptance for the company’s Tc-99m generator. The successful kits, which included bicisate, exametazime, macroaggregated albumin, mebrofenin, medronate, mertiatide, sestamibi, sulfur colloid and tetrofosmin, will help improve industry quality control and thin layer chromatography testing 

The company has also completed a variety development activities to improve its manufacturing capacity, including target and target delivery system design, production technology development, development of quality assurance/quality control methods and finalization of facility designs

As BWXT continues to advance its labeling, the company has entered into agreements with other labs to develop and implement new technologies. BWXT recently entered into a reactor services agreement with the University of Missouri to irradiate proprietary BWXT targets in the Missouri University Research Reactor (MURR) for use by BWXT in production of Mo-99. MURR provided the irradiated targets that BWXT used in its successful Tc-99m cold kit labeling.

Dr. Mihaela Ginj, the radiopharmacy operations lead at Toronto General Hospital, part of the University Health Network. “I’m encouraged by this technology and its ability to fit into the existing radiopharmacy and nuclear medicine infrastructure. It allows me to be optimistic about a more diversified and reliable Mo-99 supply for nuclear medicine professionals and patients in North America.’’

About BWXT

At BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT), we are People Strong, Innovation Driven. Headquartered in Lynchburg, Va., BWXTprovides safe and effective nuclear solutions for national security, clean energy, environmental remediation, nuclear medicine and space exploration. With approximately 6,600 employees, BWXT has 12 major operating sites in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, BWXT joint ventures provide management and operations at more than a dozen U.S. Department of Energy and NASA facilities.

The Department of Education has updated an online portal built to help U.S. students manage federal loans and grants they have applied for to support their college or career education.

ED said Monday its StudentAid website now features an aid summary that provides information about the type of each loan or grant, when the customers received it, interest rate and repayment plan.

The new tool also works to monitor borrowers' progress toward paying off loans and the number of payments they have made to qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

According to department, the revamped site also has a Loan Simulator platform that offers a comparison between repayment plans and helps a user evaluate which option can work best for them.

The Federal Student Aid office will allow scheduled monthly payments via the site as part of its  Make a Payment pilot program. FSA intends for Direct Loan borrowes to eventually process repayments through the portal.

StudentAid updates are part of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' Next Gen FSA initiative.

The U.S. Air Force plans to conduct an experiment to test the capabilities that will comprise the future Advanced Battle Management System on April 8, Air Force Magazine reported Friday.

Will Roper, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics and 2020 Wash100 winner, said at a Department of Defense press conference that testing activities for the joint command-and-control system will involve defeating unmanned aircraft and cruise missiles with the use of submarines, ships, ground troops, aircraft and SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.

Roper noted that the Air Force also plans to deploy Virgin’s LauncehrOne rocket to assess ABMS’ capacity for launching satellites on command. Artificial intelligence will also play a role in the development of the C2 system, according to Roper.

“The point of this acquisition is to inject learning continually into the program,” he said. “If you get ABMS right, you’ve just built the military’s internet of things. That’s super exciting.”

Roper said the Air Force intends to rapidly conduct development and testing activities and have vendors implement modifications for ABMS within four-month periods.