Cybersecurity Response Keeps You Running

I’ve been on the road over the last few weeks, talking to business leaders and communications professionals about what keeps them up at night when it comes to cybersecurity response communications.

Everyone I talk to from the Association of the Boards of Directors in Washington, CISOs in Detroit and communicators in Miami, is bought into the importance of cybersecurity response plans with communications as a key component. They know that cybersecurity is a tough challenge, but are committed to doing all they can to put their organizations in the best position to succeed.

Yet even with this commitment, the audiences are faced with different challenges.

• Boards of Directors are keenly interested to understand this space and their role when their company is impacted.
• Chief Security Officers who know this space inside and out want to better translate geek-speak into a language that will more clearly connect with customers, executives and the media.
• Communications professionals outside of the technology sector are finding the cybersecurity industry tough to break into and want to mitigate against the reputation hit a company takes during a cyberattack.

Having been in this industry for more than 10 years and having built up a lot of war room battle scars, I believe we can help audiences better navigate this space by expanding their understanding of cybersecurity as a technology issue, and explaining the role the highly diverse security community plays in how companies’ security events play out in the court of public opinion. With the right preparation, companies have more control over how their security event unfolds publicly than they think they do.

Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to sharing some of my stories from the trenches at the Holmes Summit in Miami, where I’ll be joined by experts from the Department of Homeland Security, The New York Times, Microsoft and CNN to discuss today’s cybersecurity trends and communications challenges.

We will discuss how companies can navigate this space where they can often be tripped up by unwritten rules, unusual norms and a roster of players that feels foreign. We’ll provide practical guidance on best practices, as well as, big picture “how to think about cybersecurity” guidance for communications professionals who want to understand how cybersecurity crises might unfold differently than other incidents they’ve handled in the past.

I look forward to sharing the stage with these incredibly bright minds, and I look forward to hearing from all of you who will be there.