Struggling BlackBerry aims to provide more mobile security software on rivals' smartphones

BlackBerry is expanding its efforts to sell mobile-security software on its rivals' smartphones to help counter the waning popularity of its own devices.

As part of the strategy outlined Thursday in San Francisco, BlackBerry unveiled several upgrades to its mobile security weapons and a partnership with smartphone market leader Samsung Electronics.

Many of the security features will protect smartphones running on operating systems made by Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen is counting on the increased emphasis on mobile security to help the Waterloo, Canada company, to double its annual software revenue to about $500 million. The security arsenal is designed to help businesses and government agencies protect their employees' smartphones from malicious software and other hacking attacks that can steal confidential information.