Warning: The following reveals a deep and personal secret of the author. Proceed at your own risk. There is a commercial airing right now where a girl says “when I had acne, I made up all kinds of excuses to stay in.” The commercial cuts to her saying things like “I heard that restaurant…
Recently I posted the following statement on LinkedIn: For years, companies have treated cybersecurity as a risk that IT could solve alone. Beyond IT, companies need to add the crisis management component to define their response. Understand key decisions, communications and reputation management requirements. #CyberSecurity #CrisisManagement I am a senior crisis management and business continuity…
The advent and popularity of cyber insurance is causing an interesting shift in the cybersecurity landscape and it’s probably not what the insurance world envisioned. I believe that organizations are far more likely to pay a ransom if they have insurance than they would be if the ransom was coming off their own…
What Two Questions Do You Need to be Prepared to Answer After a Cyberattack? In this day and age, it’s prudent to think of a cyberattack as a “when”, not “if” scenario. The truth is, your network is under attack right now and the tools and techniques utilized by your IT and Cybersecurity teams…
One of my favorite George Carlin quotes is, “I never worry that ALL hell will break loose. My concerns is that a PART of hell will break loose. It’ll be much harder to detect.” I have always loved that quote because it’s true in the lives of crisis management professionals. Many times, we write…
Recently I was running a hurricane drill for a client in the Caribbean and they were inspecting their campus to see what debris needed to be removed. Each year, as part of the drill, we look for things that could ‘float or fly’ during a hurricane and make plans for proper storage or disposal. This…
Crisis Management Teams Should Always Have a Toolkit That Supports Them During the Crisis. One of the questions that I get asked most often is “what are some of the most common mistakes you see as you visit various clients?” Other than companies not being committed to exercising (another article, another time) my biggest concern…
Let me begin by stating my position very clearly: I do not write scenario-based business continuity plans. I don’t think that it’s appropriate to base your continuity protocols on a series of unfortunate events so specific that your strategy is obsolete if the disaster isn’t a power outage on a Tuesday afternoon in May. That…
“With every mistake, we must surely be learning.” ~ George Harrison (While My Guitar Gently Weeps) The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season is becoming one of the most active seasons on record, thanks to a stretch of long-lived, destructive hurricanes over the past five weeks. It was the first time in history that we had two…