What you need to know:

• Former phone-maker's main business is now security and CMO says Covid has created a hackers' paradise.
• Bad actors are opening up new markets, exploiting weak links in networks extended by homeworking.
• Hacking-as-a-service is booming, with 100m new pieces of malware issued in the last 12 months.
• Blackberry is using hackers' attacks as a form of bespoke content marketing and lead generation, warning companies about who is trying to breach them – and how.

Marketing offensive

In the early 2000s, Blackberry enabled remote working, or “corporate mobility”, per CMO Mark Wilson. Its smartphones were best sellers in the US, and much of the world. But then Apple came along.

Ultimately, Blackberry got out of phones and performed a double pivot from hardware to software and from consumer to enterprise.

But its technology is still in hundreds of millions of smartphones and tablets, some 175m cars, and the International Space Station.

Today, Blackberry’s business is data and cyber security – and it’s booming, with hackers proving brilliant at sales, marketing and business development, and surging into new markets.

As the hackers probe new targets, Blackberry uses those attacks to create a highly targeted form of content marketing.

Hackers-as-a-service

“If ever there was a time to be in ransomware, if ever there was a time to brush up your skills on hacking, this was it,” said Wilson of the post-pandemic homeworking shift.

Malware is on the rise, he added, with “over 100m pieces of malware issued in the last year”.

Bad actors have piled into the new market opportunity.

“We’ve seen a huge rise in 'hack for hire' companies; for profit companies that people engage to hack other companies,” said Wilson. “So the hackers did not take a break. There was no Covid fatigue for them. They went out hard for different audiences.”

By proxy, that creates new audiences and markets for Blackberry, which is using the hackers as a form of lead generation, according to Corporate Marketing VP and former adman, Brian Clevenger, throwing up targeted marketing opportunities.

“We do our own research to see who these actors are going after. We will then go and talk to those companies and say, ‘just so you know, this company is trying to breach you.’”

He suggests it’s a high-spec form of bespoke content marketing, “and those tactics work extremely well” for both existing and prospective clients.

Unusual suspects

Blackberry takes a similar approach at an industry level, briefing “the usual suspect” hacker targets, such as energy companies, financial services and governments.

But, as OzTAM can attest, hackers are increasingly targeting new markets. One sector that appears to be high on their hit list is and gaming, according to Clevenger.

“You may not think gaming would be a target, but it's an industry where there are technology and trade secrets – and people want them. It’s becoming more pervasive, and now more industries are being targeted than the usual suspects.”

Hackers for hire are driving higher numbers of attacks, and it is likely that curve will steepen as barriers fall.

“You can now be in hacking as a service – and you don't even need to be an expert in hacking. If you want to get into the business of extorting other people and ransomwaring other people, there's a website for that.

“You can create your own company and you can then basically outsource the whole hacking-as-a-service business. It’s crazy, but anybody can get into this business.”

Which likely means more low hanging fruit for Blackberry.