How to communicate and manage your reputation with a data breach
16 May 2019
Data breaches have become a global concern and risk across many industries with the number of reported breaches on the rise you have to understand how to communicate and manage your reputation with a data breach.
Businesses impacted by data breaches are experiencing devastating consequences, including enormous financial losses, the erosion of customer and client confidence and the destruction of their brand and reputation.
Given the high level of public scrutiny and the increased regulatory environment, businesses have realised they can no longer bury their heads in the sand when it comes to cyber security.
The issue has ignited a number of questions regarding industry readiness:
- How prepared are Australian businesses for a possible data breach?
- How do you communicate a data breach to your customers, clients, employees, vendors, suppliers and the public?
- How resilient is your organisation in the face of potential disaster?
Although there is no magic bullet for preventing a data breach (even global brands like Facebook have been exposed), businesses can take proactive steps to ensure they have a robust cyber security communications response plan in place.
Whether businesses are the subject of a data breach as the result of a cyber-attack or from human error, all data breaches pose a significant threat to business.
The consequences can be significant and far-reaching and include financial loss, reputational damage, destruction or loss of data, risk of exposing intellectual property or trade secrets, and unplanned downtime.
Although 464 data breaches were reported to the Notifiable Breaches Scheme in Australia between July to December 2021 – with 55% of breaches caused by malicious or criminal attacks – most organisations are not taking proactive action when it comes to cyber security.
The 2021 BDO and AusCERT Cyber Security Survey found that 60% of organisations use some form of cyber threat intelligence, meaning those who are not continually learning about new cyber threats are lagging behind their peers.
With so much at stake, cyber security – including a comprehensive cyber security communications response plan – should be a top priority for all organisations.
So, the question is: How ready is your business?