Launching a new cybersecurity product is a difficult task – launching one while defining a new market space for it is practically Herculean. When cybersecurity consulting company SpecterOps found themselves faced with this exact problem, they engaged with Voxus PR to help support the launch of BloodHound Enterprise, a product to help enterprises secure Microsoft Active Directory (software that manages which users have access to which systems on a corporate network). Active Directory (AD) has been a favorite target for hackers for many years and played a role in many notable hacks and security breaches, but it has often been overlooked by enterprise security teams. SpecterOps found that they needed to educate IT leaders about why abuse of Active Directory by adversaries is so prevalent and how it could be improved before they could understand the value of BloodHound Enterprise. While SpecterOps had strong recognition among working security professionals thanks to several open-source tools they developed, they needed to build awareness with the C-suite and bring greater public attention to AD security in general.
Voxus worked with SpecterOps to do this in four ways:
- Placing vendor-neutral contributed articles in key security publications explaining the state of Active Directory security, and SpecterOps’ approach to it.
- Pitching product news coverage of BloodHound Enterprise.
- Briefing relevant cybersecurity and identity analysts.
- Conducting media outreach around a piece of SpecterOps research about AD security.
Contributed Articles
Through brainstorming with SpecterOps experts and drawing on existing research and content, Voxus placed three articles in major security publications including Dark Reading about AD security issues. Several more topics were generated and are being pitched now; this will be an ongoing program for SpecterOps to continue raising awareness of AD security issues and best practices. This thought leadership will help bring more attention to the issues that BloodHound Enterprise solves and prime the pump for sales efforts.
Product News
Voxus also worked to promote BloodHound Enterprise directly. Through media outreach around the launch of the product, Voxus secured 13 unique pieces of coverage in US publications. That translated to 49 total pieces of coverage worldwide including reprints and coverage outside of the USA. Coverage focused on security and IT tech press, and included placements in ThreatPost, Enterprise Security Tech, Help Net Security and VMBlog.
Analyst Outreach
Since SpecterOps needed to create and define a new market category for their product, they needed to engage with relevant analysts covering cybersecurity and Identity and Access Management. Voxus arranged briefings with analysts from eight firms, including Gartner, IDC, Forrester and the 451 Group. Feedback from initial briefings was positive and Voxus and SpecterOps are working together to plan how to stay on these analyst’s radar on a quarterly basis and help shape the conversation around securing Microsoft AD.
Media Outreach
Shortly before the launch of BloodHound Enterprise, two SpecterOps researchers published a lengthy white paper that examined the security of a specific component of AD called Active Directory Certificate Services. Voxus saw an opportunity here to not only secure media coverage of the research itself (it found some newsworthy security flaws in an extremely well-used enterprise product), but to also use it to start a conversation about Active Directory security in general. Voxus pitched the results of the research in advance to a select group of security journalists who covered breaches and vulnerabilities, resulting in a detailed writeup of the research in CSO Online. We followed this up with broad outreach once the results were public, which led to 16 pieces of unique US coverage, and 85 pieces of coverage worldwide (including reprints), many of which focused on the weaknesses in AD and the need for more security teams to focus on it. The two SpecterOps researchers also appeared on several security podcasts like the ThreatPost podcast, The CyberWire Research Saturday and The Hacker Factory from ITSP Magazine. Overall, this outreach was highly successful in bringing greater attention to the topic of AD security to help prepare for the launch of BHE.
Not only did this four-part strategy secure strong coverage of BloodHound Enterprise, but it also established SpecterOps as a thought leader in Active Directory security and helped to draw more attention to AD security issues, setting them up for ongoing success in the future.
Learn more about SpecterOps here, listen to their researchers Will Schroeder and Lee Christensen discuss their research on the ThreatPost podcast, or get in touch with us to learn how we can help your company achieve similar results.