BlackBerry Ltd. Chief Executive John Chen said the company’s Irvine-based BlackBerry Cylance cybersecurity unit will become increasingly important for the Canada-based company.
“They’ve got to be more important,” Chen told the Business Journal last week at CES in Las Vegas, the nation’s largest electronics trade show. “If you look at the BlackBerry strategy, we’re really focusing on security, safety and privacy.”
BlackBerry (NYSE: BB) purchased Irvine-based Cylance Inc., which provides internet security using artificial intelligence, last February for $1.4 billion.
The unit, now BlackBerry Cylance, has about 300 employees at its offices in the Irvine Spectrum area.
Stuart McClure, who co-founded Cylance in 2012, continued as head of the unit temporarily after last year’s sale but left the company in September.
McClure, a Business Journal Innovator of the Year award winner in 2016, has yet to disclose his next career move.
Machine Learning
“Cylance brings two things to us. Not only does it bring the security, the cybersecurity part,” said the CEO of the Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry, which counts a market capitalization of about $3.7 billion. “It also brings the machine part. We don’t believe humans could catch all the problems.”
Cybersecurity has become increasingly important as hackers disrupt computer systems and networks.
“Everything you look at here is all machine-based, our zero-trust architecture is machine-based, creating scores, creating profiles, matching behavior. It’s all exciting but lots of that comes from Cylance,” Chen said. “The machine is faster than humans and more accurate by factors of zillions.”
Chen added, “It’s the machine, the capability of doing it—doing the testing and the trapping of viruses and malware using machines.”
Auto Applications
Chen said other parts of BlackBerry’s business “will generate the analytics and the algorithms for Cylance to be able to make the machines smarter and smarter.”
During the Las Vegas event, the company said BlackBerry Cylance’s artificial intelligence and machine-learning cybersecurity technologies have been integrated into BlackBerry’s QNX automotive software to improve overall vehicle safety and security.
Amazon Web Services said at the show that it will incorporate the QNX technology to create what it calls the “Intelligent Connected Vehicle Software Platform,” which is designed to allow vehicle manufacturers to securely access a vehicle’s data.
“I think our strategy is right on. We’ve got loads of technology, maybe not 100% but probably better than most,” Chen said. “We were once iconic, we can do it again.”
Revenue Jump
BlackBerry has dumped its once-ubiquitous cellphones to focus on internet security systems. The company in December reported third-quarter revenue of $267 million, for a jump of 18% year-over-year.
The BlackBerry Cylance unit posted revenue of $40 million for the quarter, according to regulatory filings.
“I think that you will see more products and actions from BlackBerry that will highlight the importance of multiple groups coming together to build common products, [a] common roadmap,” Chen said, adding he is glad he made the Cylance purchase.
Brian Robison, the “chief evangelist” for BlackBerry Cylance, said the Irvine-based unit has developed a “novel approach” to combat hackers and cybercriminals.
“We’re using machine-learning to predict the actions of hackers with malware,” he said, also speaking to the Business Journal during CES. “We’ve proven that it is possible.”
Bad Code
“Through machine learning, we’ve actually cracked the DNA of what makes bad code, bad code without ever having to let it run,” Robison said. “We can look at it before it’s allowed to execute and we can say ‘that’s going to do something bad and we’re not going to let it run.’”
He said that in addition to protecting against malware attacks, the company has developed other technologies to protect against “a behavioral attack” by users or insiders.
Robison said his unusually titled job is basically educating people about cybersecurity.
“What are the social, economic, geopolitical issues around cybersecurity?” he said. “Stuart McClure used to do something called ‘Hacking Exposed,’ [and wrote a book by the same name]. So, I’m now kind of taking over ‘hacking exposed.’ We teach people the mind of the adversary. Sometimes for sales and marketing we show how we defend against that.”
He said much of the onus for breaches so far has largely been on the people using computers, but now more focus is placed on the technology side.
“We’ve actually developed a technology that protects the users from themselves, because we’re looking for bad code and we don’t allow [it] to execute. That protects the user,” according to Robison. “Even if they did click on that and that thing did go out and get some information, it wouldn’t be allowed to execute and do the bad thing.”
“The computer itself is very, very difficult to actually hack,” he said. “The software that’s written by humans is easy to hack. The actions of a human are very easy to hack.”
