Kevin Donahue | April 23, 2024
Editor’s Note: ctrl/shift is Falls & Co.’s video and blog series that provides perspective and insights to help business and civic leaders effectively manage emerging issues that have the potential to negatively impact their organizations, their people, and their communities.
In our digital age, a cyberattack isn't just a potential threat demanding an IT fix – it's a potential crisis that can shake customer confidence, tarnish your reputation by creating trust issues with your stakeholders, cost you big money, and harm your business long-term. Most companies have an IT security strategy in place to manage technology. But is it enough?
Imagine this: A hacker breaches your system, exposing sensitive data. As your IT team scrambles to contain the damage, stop the attack and put your servers back online, the crisis spirals. Customers are outraged, employees are in the dark, regulators are clamoring for answers and all stakeholders are rapidly losing confidence.
The costs are staggering. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that global cybercrime costs will grow by 15% over the next year, reaching $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, representing the greatest transfer of economic wealth in world history. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach 2023 Report, data breaches cost companies $4.45 million on average in 2023. That’s a 15% increase from 2020. And that's just the financial costs. The real damage? Loss of trust, negative publicity and damage to your organization’s brand.
Fixing the tech is critical – but that's just the first step. The real battle is protecting your reputation and rebuilding trust. This means communicating with all stakeholders quickly and appropriately. There are steps you can take to start building a cybersecurity strategy and protect your organization’s reputation before a cyberattack happens.
Cybersecurity isn't just an IT problem – it's a multidimensional crisis that demands a comprehensive approach covering communications, compliance and more. To effectively manage a cyberattack, you must prepare your organization ahead of time to bring your Crisis Management Team (CMT) together early on, engage leadership and make good decisions quickly. Here are a few questions to help determine if your organization is prepared to protect your reputation, stakeholder relationships and your business in the wake of a cyberattack:
If the answer to any of these questions is no – or you’re not sure – now is the time to act, because in today’s world, it’s not a question of if a cyberattack will occur, it’s a question of when.
At Falls & Co., we offer diagnostic cybersecurity tabletop exercises to pressure-test your team's readiness with interactive scenarios tailored to your business. This proprietary strategy helps identify any gaps in your organization’s structure and protocols. We also provide rapid response crisis communications support, working in partnership with your IT, legal and compliance teams.
Contact us to learn more.
Watch more ctrl/shift videos:
• Navigating the Rapidly Evolving AI Landscape
• New Video Series ‘ctrl/shift’
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Kevin Donahue
Kevin Donahue is the managing director of Falls & Co.'s Crisis Communications & Reputation Management Group.