In my short time leading BlackBerry, I’ve been impressed by this company’s fighting spirit. It’s this resilience that is driving us to transform the company and bring the brand back to its iconic stature. And I know that you – our customers and partners – are all in the fight with us.
One of the most frustrating things for all of us at BlackBerry is when a critical and confidential project is reported in the media before we are ready to discuss it. Leaks are, at their best, distracting, and at their worst downright misleading to our stakeholders. The business implications of a leak are seldom advantageous.
This is why I want to make you aware that, right now, we are pursuing legal action against a party who stole confidential information about a future BlackBerry product and made that information public. This person falsely posed as an employee of one of our carrier partners to obtain access to secured networks.
I recognize that, in some cases, the leaks reflect people’s genuine interest in BlackBerry. There are a lot of people whose enthusiasm for our company and our products makes them want to know what we will do next — and that can be a tremendous asset for us as a brand.
But, when curiosity turns to criminality, we must take strong action.
We will always take appropriate actions to prevent leaks from happening and in some cases this means prosecuting individuals — internally or externally — who leak confidential information.
This may mean you see a few less blog posts with photos and rumors of the next BlackBerry smartphones. I know those can be fun for our fans, but rest assured that we’re committed to communicating our biggest updates to you early and often – when they are ready to be shared.
