Are organisations missing a key element in their strategy to mitigate the threat from Cybercrime?

Here at PressArea, we believe they are. Huge investments are being made to protect organisations from cyber-attacks and cybercrime, but less is being invested in the technology to manage the impact and reputational damage caused by a successful attack.

The key to successfully managing the reputational damage and impact of cybercrime is having the technology to communicate, in a timely manner, to stakeholders and other interested parties. In the current business and economic environment, the ability to communicate widely may be needed in minutes rather than the hours and days that are often seen. A delay in communicating a response to an attack or any type of crisis allows misinformation to multiply and increases the risk of reputational and financial damage.

There is a current consensus that cyber-attacks and cybercrime are the greatest threats to organisations. The last time such consensus was seen was with the Millenium bug. Huge efforts and budgets were employed to mitigate that risk, and the fact that welcoming in the year 2000 wasn’t marked by catastrophic IT failures is testament to the success of those initiatives.

"The perpetrators of these cyber-attacks have a business model, and that model and the style of attack are evolving and changing all the time."

As with the Millenium bug, significant expenditures are being employed to combat the Cyber threat. However, the two threats are very different. The Millenium bug was a known threat that was self-limiting, and once mitigated, the threat was extinguished. Cybercrime and cyberattacks are driven by bad actors. The perpetrators of these cyber-attacks have a business model, and that model and the style of attack are evolving and changing all the time.

It is generally accepted that cybercrime will always be with us, and no matter how significant the investment in cybersecurity solutions is, there is no guarantee of protection. Therefore, an organisation must have a plan for its crisis communications because how it responds publicly to an attack is critical to managing any reputational or long-term financial damage. It follows logically that it is incumbent on organisations to ensure they have a technology platform that allows that communication because, without that platform, it’s the equivalent of having no plan at all.

PressArea provides that technology platform. PressArea is a SaaS cloud-based Media Centre and Press Office solution. It has its own web presence, sitting within, but separate from, an organisation's website. If the organisation’s IT infrastructure is attacked and the website impacted, PressArea will be available for the organisation to manage and protect its reputation, by communicating information and updates, to stakeholders and the wider audience. The Dark Site feature, available with PressArea, allows organisations to switch PressArea to an emergency crisis management mode in a matter of minutes.

If you’d like to learn more about PressArea and how it may help your organisation, please email crisiscomms@pressarea.com

Nigel Hoggart