USA – ILLINOIS Trends and Developments Contributed by: Jamie Singer and Meredith Griffanti, FTI Consulting, Inc.
security crisis communications. While no two incidents are exactly the same, the communica- tions lessons learnt and best practices gleaned from working full time on these particular types of crises are extremely valuable to organisational victims. Of course, an organisation’s own com- munications team understands the company’s voice, corporate culture and stakeholders’ needs best. But in a cybersecurity crisis, supplement- ing that institutional knowledge with expertise in highly nuanced cybersecurity and incident response communications can be extraordinar- ily beneficial. Conclusion When it comes to cybersecurity attacks, no organisation should go it alone. An effective and efficient response requires co-ordinated action between partners, including external legal counsel, forensics firms, crisis communications experts, call centres, mailing houses and more.
Communications decision-making is heightened and accelerated during cybersecurity events, so searching for a communications partner dur- ing an active cybersecurity crisis is not ideal. Establishing a relationship with cybersecurity crisis communications specialists in advance of an incident will help ensure the outside cri- sis communications team can familiarise itself with a company’s existing incident response and communications protocols, understand the dif- ferent roles and responsibilities of members of the incident response team, and develop chem- istry with internal communications and legal teams before the alarm bell rings. Working with communications consultants to develop a well- tested communications plan – one that consid- ers the above ten points – can be the difference in maintaining or losing stakeholder trust and therefore, revenue. Incident response communications expertise in a cybersecurity crisis can no longer be viewed as an afterthought; it is a must-have, right now.
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