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Adding to their list of partners, BlackBerry today announced they have teamed up with Dedrone as part of an embedded technology partnership that will see Dedrone making use of BlackBerry AtHoc's advanced alerting capabilities alongside their drone detection technology.

"When an unauthorized drone enters restricted airspace, time is of the essence. The more effectively the on-site personnel can respond, the better their chances of countering whatever the drone is there to do. BlackBerry AtHoc's advanced alerting capabilities combined with Dedrone's drone detection technology, enable our customers to react precisely and in time to control the situation," said Aaditya Devarakonda, President and Chief Business Officer, Dedrone.

The technology will tap into the BlackBerry AtHoc API to deliver "automated, highly targeted alerts based on a range of criteria, including flight zones, drone behavior, and user groups" to Dedrone customers, which include the U.S. military, correctional facilities, airports, utilities and more.

"New advanced technologies have the potential to solve some of today's most pressing challenges, however, they also introduce new security risks," said Christoph Erdmann, Senior Vice President of Secure Communications, BlackBerry. "Drones are one of the many IoT endpoints that add to the growing chaos that security leaders must navigate. We're excited to partner with Dedrone to offer a critical solution that organizations around the world can use to keep citizens and the public safe."

Press Release

Dedrone and BlackBerry Partner to Counter Unauthorized Drone Activity

WATERLOO, Ontario and SAN FRANCISCO, June 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) today announced it has partnered with Dedrone, a market and technology leader in airspace security, to deliver advanced counter-drone technology to secure the world's most critical sites. As part of this embedded technology partnership, Dedrone, is integrating BlackBerry AtHoc software into its products to enable real-time secure alerts when a malicious or unauthorized drone is detected in an airspace.

"When an unauthorized drone enters restricted airspace, time is of the essence. The more effectively the on-site personnel can respond, the better their chances of countering whatever the drone is there to do. BlackBerry AtHoc's advanced alerting capabilities combined with Dedrone's drone detection technology, enable our customers to react precisely and in time to control the situation," said Aaditya Devarakonda, President and Chief Business Officer, Dedrone.

The Dedrone technology portfolio combines machine-learning software with best-in-class hardware sensors, electronic attack methods like smart jamming, and defeat weapons to provide early warning, classification of, and mitigation against drone threats. Dedrone's capabilities are used by hundreds of customers globally, including the U.S. military, allied and coalition forces, correctional facilities, airports, utilities, as well as other public and private organizations.

Working with the BlackBerry AtHoc API, Dedrone has integrated directly to BlackBerry AtHoc's extensive and granular alerting functionality. This allows the creation of automated, highly targeted alerts based on a range of criteria, including flight zones, drone behavior, and user groups – for a more efficient, focused response to the presence of an unauthorized drone.

"New advanced technologies have the potential to solve some of today's most pressing challenges, however, they also introduce new security risks," said Christoph Erdmann, Senior Vice President of Secure Communications, BlackBerry. "Drones are one of the many IoT endpoints that add to the growing chaos that security leaders must navigate. We're excited to partner with Dedrone to offer a critical solution that organizations around the world can use to keep citizens and the public safe."

BlackBerry is a global leader in secure communications and our BlackBerry AtHoc software is used by key organizations around the world including 70% of the US Federal government. To learn more about how BlackBerry intelligent security solutions are enabling a securely connected future everywhere, visit www.BlackBerry.com.

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.

BlackBerry. Intelligent Security. Everywhere.

The University of Windsor and BlackBerry have now announced they have partnered to create a new cybersecurity curriculum called BlackBerry Bootcamp, which will be delivered over 10 weeks as part of the University's Graduate Master's Program in Applied Computing.

A new report coming from BlackBerry titled Decade of the RATs: Cross-Platform APT Espionage Attacks Targeting Linux, Windows and Android is now available and it offers a closer examination of how five Chinese Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups have been targeting Linux, Windows, and Android.

As part of the report, BlackBerry notes the groups have been operating for nearly a decade now while remaining mostly undetected while conducting economic espionage focused on intellectual property and the ongoing attacks are taking advantage of the rise in work-from-home operations due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Key findings in the report include:

• The APT groups examined in this report are likely comprised of civilian contractors working in the interest of the Chinese government who readily share tools, techniques, infrastructure, and targeting information with one another and their government counterparts.
• The APT groups have traditionally pursued different objectives and focused on a wide array of targets; however, it was observed that there is a significant degree of coordination between these groups, particularly where targeting of Linux platforms is concerned.
• The research identifies two new examples of Android malware, continuing a trend seen in a previous report from BlackBerry researchers, titled Mobile Malware and APT Espionage: Prolific, Pervasive, and Cross-Platform, which examined how APT groups have been leveraging mobile malware in combination with traditional desktop malware in ongoing cross-platform surveillance and espionage campaigns.
• One of the Android malware samples very closely resembles the code in a commercially available penetration testing tool, yet the malware is shown to have been created nearly two years before the commercial tool was first made available for purchase.
• The report examines several new variants of well-known malware that are getting by network defenders through the use code-signing certificates for adware, a tactic that the attackers hope will increase infection rates as AV red flags are dismissed as just another blip in a constant stream of adware alerts.
• The research also highlights a shift by attackers towards the use of cloud service providers for command-and-control (C2) and data exfiltration communications which appear to be trusted network traffic.

"This research paints a picture of an espionage effort targeting the very backbone of large organizations' network infrastructure that is more systemic than has been previously acknowledged," says John McClurg, Chief Information Security Officer at BlackBerry. "This report opens another chapter in the Chinese IP theft story, providing us with new lessons to learn."

Press Release

BlackBerry Report Examines Decade-Long Compromise of Linux Servers by Chinese APTs

WATERLOO, Ont. – April 7, 2020 –BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) today released new research that examines how five related Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups operating in the interest of the Chinese government have systematically targeted Linux servers, Windows systems and mobile devices running Android while remaining undetected for nearly a decade.

The report, titled Decade of the RATs: Cross-Platform APT Espionage Attacks Targeting Linux, Windows and Android, provides further insight into pervasive economic espionage operations targeting intellectual property, a subject that the Department of Justice recently said is the focus of more than 1000 open investigations in all of the 56 FBI field offices.

The cross-platform aspect of the attacks is also of particular concern in light of security challenges posed by the sudden increase in remote workers. The tools identified in these ongoing attack campaigns are already in place to take advantage of work-from-home mandates, and the diminished number of personnel onsite to maintain security of these critical systems compounds the risks. While the majority of the workforce has left the office as part of containment efforts in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, intellectual property remains in enterprise data centers, most of which run on Linux.

Linux runs nearly all of the top 1 million websites online, 75% of all web servers, 98% of the world's supercomputers and 75% of major cloud service providers (Netcraft, 2019, Linux Foundation, 2020). Most large organizations rely on Linux to run websites, proxy network traffic and store valuable data. The BlackBerry report examines how APTs have leveraged the "always on, always available" nature of Linux servers to establish a "beachhead for operations" across a wide swath of targets.

"Linux is not typically user-facing, and most security companies focus their engineering and marketing attention on products designed for the front office instead of the server rack, so coverage for Linux is sparse" said Eric Cornelius, Chief Product Architect at BlackBerry. "These APT groups have zeroed in on that gap in security and leveraged it for their strategic advantage to steal intellectual property from targeted sectors for years without anyone noticing."

Other key findings in the report include:

• The APT groups examined in this report are likely comprised of civilian contractors working in the interest of the Chinese government who readily share tools, techniques, infrastructure, and targeting information with one another and their government counterparts.
• The APT groups have traditionally pursued different objectives and focused on a wide array of targets; however, it was observed that there is a significant degree of coordination between these groups, particularly where targeting of Linux platforms is concerned.
• The research identifies two new examples of Android malware, continuing a trend seen in a previous report from BlackBerry researchers, titled Mobile Malware and APT Espionage: Prolific, Pervasive, and Cross-Platform, which examined how APT groups have been leveraging mobile malware in combination with traditional desktop malware in ongoing cross-platform surveillance and espionage campaigns.
• One of the Android malware samples very closely resembles the code in a commercially available penetration testing tool, yet the malware is shown to have been created nearly two years before the commercial tool was first made available for purchase.
• The report examines several new variants of well-known malware that are getting by network defenders through the use code-signing certificates for adware, a tactic that the attackers hope will increase infection rates as AV red flags are dismissed as just another blip in a constant stream of adware alerts.
• The research also highlights a shift by attackers towards the use of cloud service providers for command-and-control (C2) and data exfiltration communications which appear to be trusted network traffic.

"This research paints a picture of an espionage effort targeting the very backbone of large organizations' network infrastructure that is more systemic than has been previously acknowledged," says John McClurg, Chief Information Security Officer at BlackBerry. "This report opens another chapter in the Chinese IP theft story, providing us with new lessons to learn."

To learn more and download a copy of the report, visit https://www.blackberry.com/RATs.

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. Intelligent Security. Everywhere.

For more information, visit BlackBerry.com and follow @BlackBerry.