Episode 304 Deep Dive: David Wiseman | The Eroding Trust in Consumer Messaging Apps

In this episode, we sit down with David Wiseman, Vice President of Secure Communications at BlackBerry, as he discusses the growing challenges around digital sovereignty and trust in consumer messaging apps. David explores the limitations and risks of using platforms like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram for sensitive or official communications, highlighting issues such as identity spoofing, loss of data control, and the collection of valuable metadata by adversaries. He explains BlackBerry’s shift to software-based secure communications that provide governments and enterprises with the necessary controls for confidentiality, compliance, and usability—delivering “consumer app” simplicity with enterprise-level security.

BlackBerry Role

In his role as the Vice President of Secure Communications, David is a seasoned international public speaker, whose responsibilities include leading the Secure Government Communications business in the Americas and APAC. He specializes in applying technology to real life mission critical business systems with a focus in communications, security, and safety.

David and his team support our customers in understanding how to secure their mobile communications from the most advanced adversaries, especially in complex and highly secure sectors such as defense and military, including NATO. David has been with BlackBerry for ten years, joining the organization in November 2014.

Experience

David has 25+ years of experience in software, security, information management, mobility and communications at BlackBerry, IBM, SAP, Sybase, and the US Navy. His expertise in Secure Communications leads BlackBerry in the vision of securing a connected future you can trust, helping governments to augment and fortify digital defences to strengthen national security

Notable Achievements

David helped design the world’s first large-scale environmental geo-spatial database for NASA. He also helped design the software for one of the first shipboard radar data fusion systems for the US Navy. At BlackBerry, David and his team have helped NATO and multiple global governments operating in challenging geo-political environments to establish trusted, secure communications channels from the battlefield to the boardroom – using military-grade software to ensure classified conversations and messages remain private.