Leading the industry in stalkerware education.

Driving awareness to reduce the threat of stalkerware and its impact on the risk to people’s safety.

Client: Malwarebytes

Website: malwarebytes.com

Industry: Endpoint security software.

Media Placement

Thought Leadership

Rapid Response Commentary

Industry Education

Online Readership

Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE)

Social Media Shares of Coverage

Average Domain Authority

CHALLENGE

Lead by educating.

Malwarebytes is a leading advocate in the fight against stalkerware and its role in domestic violence. With the ubiquity of mobile devices and social media creating real-life fallout experienced by victims of technological abuse, the security software leader began a campaign to educate the industry on the prevalence of stalkerware and how vendors across the industry, like Malwarebytes, can draw a hard line in the sand to help prevent the use of stalkerware and other forms of surveillance, including spyware. The cause was important for Malwarebytes’ brand voice, and it was an issue the company and its team were intensely passionate about and wanted to take a prominent role as an industry educator.

SOLUTION

Building a coalition.

As a leading security educator and a company focused on social responsibility, Malwarebytes became a co-founder of the Coalition Against Stalkerware, bringing together cybersecurity vendors, domestic violence organizations and digital rights advocates. Avista entered to help Malwarebytes expand its educational reach and bring together key members of this coalition with media and victim’s rights advocates during a media dinner event during the annual Black Hat security conference. By design, the event was an open forum for education, discussion and dialog. With successful educational pitching Avista secured attendees from major media outlets, including Bloomberg, The Register, CyberScoop, ThreatPost, PC Magazine, The Parallax, and NBC/Today Show – all engaged in an open media forum which delivered incredible coverage.

RESULTS

Advocacy for a cause delivers exponential brand visibility.

Kicked off with the media dinner event during Black Hat, Avista continued to spearhead an active educational campaign to communicate the dangerous and mounting risk of stalkerware. The campaign resulted in compelling coverage across business, consumer and security trade publications from TechCrunch, The Kim Komando Show and Washington Post to Wired, Forbes, Yahoo!, CNET and more. The campaign received over 28 pieces of dedicated coverage with an online readership of more than 8.5 billion and over 7,060 social media shares. The campaign culminated in a featured NBC News prime time interview with Malwarebytes’ CEO that educated consumers on the invasive apps that help domestic abusers spy on their victims, positioning Malwarebytes as a leading security visionary and consumer advocate.

View Malwarebytes stalkerware education coverage

Avista delivered amazing results for our Stalkerware Education campaign. They have outstanding media relationships which transferred into active and regular coverage to promote the Malwarebytes brand.”