In this detailed article, we’ll discuss what a cyber crisis management plan means for your cyber PR and communications, and how you can develop one for your cybersecurity company.
On 19th July 2024, millions of Windows users worldwide were greeted by the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
Their computers became unusable, productivity came to a halt, and social media buzzed with speculation about the cause.
Though it wasn’t a security breach, senior Omdia analysts called the incident a cybersecurity disaster that cost companies over $5 billion worldwide.
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company responsible for the crisis, ultimately resolved the issue and things got back to normal. But their slow and unclear media communication left users confused and anxious for hours.
It not only tarnished their reputation but also reduced the net worth of the company’s CEO by over $300 million.
Cybersecurity crises can strike without warning.
Yet with a well-crafted crisis communication plan, your company can minimize the damage, manage public perception, and protect its reputation.
Contents
What Is Crisis Communication In Cybersecurity?
Crisis communication in cybersecurity refers to how an online security company handles messaging and information sharing during a cyber incident that threatens its operations, data, reputation, or stakeholders in any way.
It involves internal organizational communication to manage and control the crisis, and intimate
as well as coordination with external stakeholders, partners, customers, and media companies.
The goal is to counter misinformation by telling your side of the story and taking your customers and partners into confidence.
The quicker you do that, the better for your business.
Companies that fail to respond promptly or communicate clearly in a crisis, often suffer lasting damage to their reputations.
Which is why you need a detailed and formal cybersecurity communication plan that outlines how you disseminate information to your internal and external stakeholders when a crisis occurs.
But what exactly is a cybersecurity crisis? Let’s quickly look at a few examples.
Examples Of Cybersecurity Crises
Cybersecurity crises can emerge for a number of reasons. However, here are a few common examples.
Data Breaches
Data breaches are among the most common causes of cybersecurity crises worldwide. They happen when an attacker or unauthorized user accesses your internal business data, customer information, or any other critical private information.
According to IBM’s 2024 cybersecurity study, the global average cost of a data breach is almost $5 million.
Technological Failures
Cybersecurity crises can also be triggered due to technological failures like system outages, connectivity issues, and software vulnerabilities resulting in limited access or downtimes for clients.
Internal Threats
Sometimes an internal security breach can also result in a cybersecurity crisis. For example, an employee or contractor within the company leaks your critical customer data or shares access with unauthorized users.
False Positives
Automated security systems and software can sometimes flag safe files as malware or block user access to data as a precaution to a non-existent threat. This can cause panic among users and trigger a crisis.
In all such crises, timely and accurate communication plays a vital role in securing your reputation and minimizing business loss.
Why You Need A Cybersecurity Crisis Communication Plan
When a cybersecurity crisis strikes, it’s vital to know exactly how to communicate with your internal and external stakeholders to minimize confusion and potential business losses.
A study by Capterra found that most organizations believe coordination among IT, business operations, and PR departments is crucial during a crisis.
Yet, less than half of the surveyed organizations had a formal crisis communication plan.
To avoid being caught unprepared during a cyber incident—unsure of what, when, and where to communicate—your organization needs to develop a comprehensive cybersecurity crisis communication plan.
It prepares your employees and partners before a crisis occurs and gives them precise guidelines on how to collaborate during an emergency.
In short, having this plan allows you to be proactive during a crisis. You can take control of the story by using various promotional channels and collaborating with key journalists and media outlets.
3 Phases Of An Effective Cybersecurity Crisis Communication Plan
Let’s now discuss the specifics of developing a coordinated crisis communication plan for a cybersecurity firm.
For effective planning, you can divide this plan into three main categories.
Pre-Crisis Communication
Pre-crisis communication is about building your brand’s credibility and setting up a system for managing a potential crisis.
Here are its main components.
1. Build Credibility And Trust Through Media Coverage
Regularly being cited in the media as a source of expert knowledge, fresh data, case studies, and thought leadership content builds your brand’s credibility and positions it as an authority in the cybersecurity space.
Why does this matter?
Because credibility and brand awareness play a vital role in shaping public opinion, especially during a cybersecurity crisis.
If people already trust your brand, they’re more likely to stand by you when challenges arise.
So, how do you get your brand featured regularly in the media?
By publishing high-value content and promoting your achievements through media partnerships and connections with influential cybersecurity journalists.
But navigating the media landscape can be tricky.
That’s where a specialized cybersecurity press release firm can make all the difference.
For example, when Aembit became a finalist in the 2024 SC Awards for the Best Identity Management Solutions category, they didn’t just sit back.
They leveraged CyberNewswire, our specialized cybersecurity press release platform, to amplify their achievement.
As a result, it got featured in Yahoo Finance, HackRead, and dozens of other sites with millions of visitors.
Similarly, Memcyco used our press release platform to promote its report on digital impersonation, getting featured in some of the world’s leading tech publications.
This strategy does more than just gain media attention. It also attracts valuable backlinks and brand mentions from high-authority sites, boosting your cybersecurity SEO and enhancing your online visibility.
In short, proactive media engagement not only elevates your brand’s credibility but also ensures you’re presented in a positive light to your target audience.
2. Grow Your Brand’s Organic Social Media Channels
Building an engaged social media following is one of the best ways to create brand awareness and protect your reputation in a cybersecurity crisis.
How? Social media gives you direct access to your audience, allows you to quickly disseminate your official stance on any incident, and responds to your audience’s questions.
So, it isn’t surprising that social media is the most popular content distribution channel among B2B marketers, according to the 2024 B2B Content Benchmarks Report.
Social media presence gives you an immediate advantage over a brand that depends entirely on conventional media or new publications for its projection.
For example, if you have an engaged following on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform, you can post a quick text or video message to take your audience into confidence, before leveraging press releases and other media channels.
However, growing a vibrant organic social media following for a cybersecurity company takes time and consistent effort. So, you must start early and make social media a permanent part of your branding and cyber marketing plans.
3. Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) For Crisis Communication
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) outline your communication strategy and provide guidelines on how different departments within your company should react during a cybersecurity crisis.
From a communications perspective, your SOP document should provide a roadmap for both internal and external communications.
This includes developing a communication hierarchy.
For example, who will inform your employees when a crisis strikes? Is it the HR department or the CEO, or will department heads inform their respective teams?
How will internal departments communicate and clarify the situation? Do you call a meeting of all department heads or a core leadership group? Is there a specific committee or team designated for such situations?
Similarly, who communicates with your partners and external stakeholders? Who informs the customers and engages with the media?
And most importantly, who decides and finalizes the company’s official messaging?
An SOP document should also include crisis escalation criteria. For company-wide crises that can directly impact brand reputation, the CEO or the C-suite should directly intervene.
Department heads or respective teams can handle lower-tier crises that are under control and do not require a full-fledged media campaign.
Developing this hierarchy and creating detailed crisis communication SOPs can dramatically reduce uncertainty and confusion in an emergency situation.
Communication During Crisis
If you prepare well before a cybersecurity crisis strikes, handling it becomes much simpler. Everyone understands their roles and knows what’s expected from them.
Here’s how you communicate during a crisis.
4. Brief Your Key Decision Makers And Coordination Teams
The first thing to do in a cybersecurity crisis, apart from technically handling it, is to take your key decision-makers into confidence and brief them about the severity and implications of the crisis.
This is critical because your employees should get an official version before they get news from social media or other outside sources.
Next, brief your partners and external stakeholders about the crisis and how it impacts them. Ideally, this should be done through your official email and, in rare cases, phone numbers.
In addition, set up regular update meetings or calls with your internal teams. This ensures everyone is on the same page as the situation evolves. Encourage open communication so team members can raise concerns and suggest solutions.
5. Use A Dedicated Cybersecurity Press Release Platform
Once you take your partners and employees into confidence, release an initial reaction to the crisis for the media and your customer base.
If you don’t have enough information but believe it’s important to release an official version, begin with a holding statement.
A holding statement acknowledges the crisis and assures customers that you’re handling it.
Use your official social media channels and email lists to publish your version.
But to get widespread media coverage, also use a specialized cybersecurity press release platform like CyberNewswire.
This ensures that your version goes directly to the most relevant tech journalists working for sites like Yahoo, Business Insider, Fast Company, TheNextWeb, HackRead, and others.
For example, when a critical firewall vulnerability was discovered in April 2024, panic spread across the world and organizations worried about their data security.
Xiid Corporation, a firewall service provider, immediately used our press release platform to assure its customers they were safe.
Tech journalists notice cybersecurity press releases much faster than updates from a company’s official social media accounts.
Plus, once a news release features in a leading publication, it is automatically syndicated across dozens of platforms, ensuring widespread coverage.
As the crisis unfolds, keep using this combination of communicating your official version through social media and amplifying important updates using a cybersecurity press release platform.
This would help you counter rumors and negative media coverage, and ensure that your brand’s reputation remains intact.
6. Reach Out To Information Security Journalists
Along with press releases, building strong relationships with journalists plays a vital role in managing crisis communication.
It’s important to invest in these relationships with journalists from leading news outlets before a crisis strikes. Doing so gives you the advantage of leveraging their media access for better coverage when a cybersecurity crisis arises.
But how do you build these relationships?
By consistently providing unique and newsworthy content throughout the year, which is what you should be doing anyway as part of your cyber content marketing strategy. When you offer journalists solid material they can use to create compelling stories and drive traffic to their sites, they’ll come to view you as a trusted source.
This ties back to what I mentioned earlier about regularly publishing security reports, thought leadership pieces, and company updates, and being open to interviews and media appearances.
In the end, investing in media relations pays off when you need to control the narrative and effectively communicate your side of the story during a crisis.
7. Escalate Communication Modes Based On Crisis Severity
Not every cybersecurity crisis demands frequent social media updates, worldwide media coverage, or a steady stream of press releases.
How you communicate during a crisis should be tailored to its severity and impact because sometimes, over communication can backfire.
For instance, customers don’t need to be informed about every internal issue that causes minor productivity disruptions.
Similarly, while it’s important to notify customers about a temporary service outage or performance issue, continuous updates aren’t necessary if the impact is minimal.
However, when a crisis poses a significant threat to your customer base or product performance, a comprehensive and proactive communication strategy becomes crucial.
Ultimately, it’s up to your organization’s key decision-makers to evaluate the crisis and decide the level of communication required.
Escalate your communication modes thoughtfully to avoid drawing unnecessary media attention to your vulnerabilities while ensuring your customers are kept informed appropriately.
Post-Crisis Communication
No matter how well you communicate during a cybersecurity crisis, it damages your reputation to some extent.
This is why your post-crisis communication strategy is critical for controlling the media narrative and restoring public confidence.
8. Run An Internal Audit And Document Lessons Learned
Start by conducting a thorough internal audit to pinpoint the specific causes and vulnerabilities that led to the crisis. The more detailed and precise your assessment, the better equipped you’ll be to diagnose the problem and assign accountability.
Once the audit is complete, create a comprehensive lessons-learned document. This should include clear recommendations on how to prevent similar crises in the future.
In a post-crisis survey, 84% of organizations said they would practice crisis communication in advance, and 78% committed to improving their communication tools.
While these are common takeaways from post-crisis audits, a deeper dive into your unique situation will help you uncover more tailored, actionable steps to prevent future incidents.
9.Use Cybersecurity Press Releases To Restore Public Confidence
Post-crisis communication is all about rebuilding trust with your partners, customers, and the public.
To do this effectively, you’ll need a well-rounded content strategy. Start by issuing an official press release that announces the resolution of the crisis, shares key findings, and reassures customers that you’ve taken the necessary steps to prevent similar incidents in the future.
But that’s just the first step.
To fully restore credibility, you’ll need to ramp up content creation and generate positive media coverage. Focus on producing original research and thought leadership pieces that highlight what you’ve learned from the crisis and how you’re using those insights to strengthen your defenses.
If your organization experienced a significant cybersecurity breach, continue using press releases to keep your audience informed about any ongoing fallout.
However, ensure the focus is on the solutions and corrective actions you’ve implemented, rather than the crisis itself. By emphasizing your proactive approach, you can help restore public confidence in your brand.
Best Practices For Crisis Communication
How can you ensure that your crisis communication is effective during a cybersecurity incident and helps mitigate reputational damage?
Follow these best practices to stay in control and protect your brand.
1.Create Communication Templates
In the middle of a cybersecurity crisis, the last thing you want is for employees to scramble for the right words.
To avoid inconsistent or unclear communication, develop pre-approved templates tailored for different crisis scenarios.
These templates should cover both internal and external communications, ensuring that your messaging remains clear, consistent, and aligned with your company’s overall strategy.
By having these templates ready in advance, you can respond quickly and effectively, reducing confusion and controlling the narrative from the start.
Additionally, review and update these templates regularly to account for new threats or changes in your company’s communication style.
2. Polish Employee Communication Skills
Even with templates in place, your employees may still need to directly interact with customers and partners during a crisis. That’s why refining their communication skills, especially in high-pressure situations, is essential.
The most important aspect of crisis communication is empathy.
Your customers and partners are directly impacted by the incident, and their concerns are valid. It’s crucial that your employees acknowledge this and approach every interaction with understanding and reassurance.
Avoid reacting with frustration or defensiveness. Instead, focus on being empathetic and calm.
At the same time, be transparent.
Never downplay the severity of the situation or claim it’s under control if it isn’t.
Effective crisis communication requires a balance of honesty, empathy, and reassurance. Handling the situation with care helps build trust and maintain relationships during tough times.
3. Run Mock Crisis Communication Drills
To ensure your crisis communication plan is effective, regularly conduct mock drills within your organization.
These simulations not only help identify gaps and improve response times, but they also allow your team to practice handling real-world scenarios.
By running these drills, you can assess how well your communication strategies hold up under pressure, test your messaging templates, and train employees to respond calmly and effectively.
While you won’t publish press releases or make public social media posts during a mock exercise, you can still prepare the content and test how efficiently your team can craft and distribute messaging.
Mock drills also provide an opportunity for key decision-makers to collaborate, refine their roles, and ensure that everyone knows their responsibilities during an actual crisis.
Regular practice will strengthen your team’s preparedness and boost overall confidence when facing the real thing.
4. Establish Feedback Mechanisms For Stakeholders
As you release an initial holding statement and work through the crisis, ensure you provide your partners, customers, and stakeholders with a way to share feedback and report how the crisis has impacted them.
This not only demonstrates that you care about their concerns but also helps you assess the full scope of the crisis and its implications.
You can facilitate this by setting up a dedicated email address, a live chatbot, or an emergency hotline that allows stakeholders to reach your support teams directly.
Customers value an organization that listens and shows empathy during challenging times, so use this as an opportunity to connect with them, build trust, and strengthen relationships.
Why You Have to Manage A Cyber Crisis Communication Plan?
With cyberattacks and security breaches on the rise, it’s essential for your cybersecurity company to have a comprehensive crisis communication plan in place.
Remember, you’re a cybersecurity company customers trust to safeguard their data. If your own security is compromised and you fail to communicate openly with your customers during a crisis, your brand’s reputation will take a serious hit.
A well-prepared crisis communication plan not only helps you mitigate reputational damage but also ensures you maintain your customers’ trust during the most critical moments.