10Fold Differentiates BitGlass With Where’s Your Data Experiment

Challenge

Bitglass is an IT security startup that needed visibility and leads leading up to the industry’s biggest IT security tradeshow, RSA. The company competes in a very noisy space and an industry darling, CipherCloud, had secured a lot of industry attention. In addition, Bitglass wanted to educate the media and public on the fluid state of information outside of the corporate firewall. 10Fold recommended an experiment using the Bitglass watermarking technology to highlight the speed in which sensitive financial data would travel after a theoretical data breach once it hit the Dark Web.

Solution

Using the Bitglass-patented watermarking technology, Bitglass generated an Excel document and populated it with names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security and credit card numbers. The list of 1,568 fictitious people was then anonymously posted by the Bitglass team within the Dark Web where cybercriminals frequent to purchase stolen consumer and corporate information. The test demonstrated how stolen data is shared, bought and sold on the black market. Within two weeks:

• The document was previewed > 1,000 times.

• The document was downloaded 47 times.

• The data traveled to 22 countries on five continents.

• The most interesting places accessing the fake data: U.S.-based educational institutions.

• People looking at the data were criminal gangs in Russia and Nigeria.

Beyond proposing the creative outline for this experiment, 10Fold recommended disseminating the information in several formats including a press release, creating a hybrid report/infographic and video to depict the velocity in which breached information travels after a hypothetical cyberattack. The video was playing on repeat at the Bitglass booth during RSA 2015 and the infographic was made available to all foot traffic. All assets were posted online and on all social channels (YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook). 10Fold was able to use the report and digital collateral to emphasize the liquid market for breached data.

Outcome

The report not only appeared in a feature story on the Wall Street Journal, but also appeared in the Risk and Compliance property of the Wall Street Journal, the CIO Journal Morning Download. In a matter of two weeks the report had been seen in more than 80 IT security, consumer and business publications.

• Week of launch netted 15,000 visitors to www.bitglass.com vs. their 5,000 weekly average

• After the first week, there were more than 2,300 video views

• 700 leads (gated report downloads, many more views of the report since some of the pubs included the link directly to the PDF)

• Thousands of tweet mentions (though we’re not sure how many since we didn’t have a great tool for tracking)

Bear in mind, Bitglass had only received 80 articles total prior to engaging with 10Fold. What’s more, the report serves as a data resource for press every time a breach takes place. The findings serve as good fodder for Bitglass inclusion and as a conversation starter every time a breach is disclosed. Lastly, multiple media outlets couldn’t help but give their suggestions for fun and creative ways to do the experiment in 2016. This campaign garnered national industry recognition in March 2016 as it won Honorable Mention for PR Week’s Technology Campaign of the Year (2nd place out of five national Finalists).