Managing stakeholder communication during a cyber crisis

The paper examines the impact on stakeholders during cyber crises and how failing to engage with them can quickly escalate a crisis into a reputation train wreck. While organisations must focus their efforts on preventing and mitigating cyberattacks, it is not always possible to fix the problems when they occur and in some cases it may take weeks or months before the issue is resolved. If the affected organisation does not own up and communicate quickly with its stakeholders, this communication vacuum period can seriously erode stakeholder confidence and ultimately destroy the organisation’s reputation. Using the famous The Good, the Bad and the Ugly film metaphor, this paper delves into three recent cyber crisis examples to define what was done well, which was a badly handled case, and which was a truly ugly one to draw best-practice lessons. Recognising that stakeholders are at the core of our organisations’ echo system is a good place to start. By identifying and mapping them in order of importance, degree of influence and threat level, the organisation can develop engagement strategies that are designed to yield measurable results. Furthermore, the stakeholder mapping process helps uncover opportunities as well as worst-case scenarios that can be prepared for and help weather the storm. Ultimately, stakeholder outrage can drive crises into reputation meltdowns and the ability to communicate swiftly, transparently and credibly is the cornerstone of any effective crisis response strategy, but especially cyber ones where there are seldom quick fixes. The ability to retain stakeholder trust in the midst of adversity and chaos underpins the organisation’s capacity to protect its reputation and possibly emerge stronger on the other side.