Communication Management and Cybersecurity are more interconnected than ever. Incidents resulting from their poor management, which ultimately affect companies, cannot be addressed solely from a technical or legal perspective.
The corporate communication management must be able to respond to the challenges faced by Communication Directors.
Communication in the face of Cybersecurity challenges.
Earlier this October, a conference on “Communication in the face of Cybersecurity challenges” was held, organized by Dircom (Association of Communication Directors) in collaboration with Corporate Excellence.
The objective of this virtual meeting is to discuss the new cybersecurity challenges arising in Communication departments. The main results of the European Communication Monitor 2020 were also analyzed.
The conclusions drawn indicate that more than half of communication managers have already witnessed or been victims of cyberattacks in their organizations.
In general, professionals in this sector are often involved in managing problems derived from cyberattacks. However, only a minority consider it the Communication department’s own responsibility to train and inform employees on how to face these crises.
onBRANDING’s role in cybersecurity awareness and communication.
At onBRANDING, we have been warning about this rising trend since 2014, but it is not until now, 2020, 6 years later, that various marketing and communication associations are beginning to react more actively.
Selva Orejón, Executive Director of onBranding, has participated as a speaker in various Dircom conferences with the aim of sharing perspectives and experiences that can help the sector advance in Communication Management and Cybersecurity. Some of the meetings she has participated in include:
- Conference on “Sextortion: Personal Impact, Business Crisis.”
- Meeting on cybersecurity errors in daily life.
- As a trainer in Cybersecurity, in a conference exclusively dedicated to this purpose.
- Presenting the talk on internet security as part of the communication strategy.
- Presenting the conference “Protection of digital identity and online reputation: Cybersecurity and privacy applied to daily business.”
Impact of cybersecurity incidents on company reputation and communication.
In our 2015 blog post on hijacking (digital identity theft of a company’s website), coinciding with the 2nd year of the Brand Care Congress held in Barcelona and promoted by onBRANDING, the main key message was precisely that: What role does communication play in cybersecurity incidents.
Google ranking theft: hijacking or brand kidnapping
In 2013, at INCIBE, we already wrote a post about Cybersecurity attacks on the reputation of personal and corporate brands.
For years, we have been detecting an increase in attacks, whose origin is none other than a lack of Cybersecurity or Privacy on the part of employees, clients, partners, and suppliers, and the consequent need to improve the protection and care of corporate or personal brands on the Internet.
We will provide several examples of how a cybersecurity attack on a brand and the lack of crisis communication management on social media can negatively affect the organization’s reputation and its members.
Some data to raise awareness of the problem: cyberattacks on personal and corporate privacy top the list of business concerns. Some of these attacks include:
- Theft – damage to secrets and intellectual/industrial property
- Online fraud
- Identity theft and impersonation
The cost of these cybercrimes totals $1 trillion, and it is estimated that it could triple by 2020 if companies do not strengthen their defenses. The surveyed companies consider their IT protection spending to be low.
The role of the Communication Director and the communication department in corporate cyber protection.
And what about the role of the Communication Director and the members of communication departments?
The reality is that they are not trained in this area.
Communication Management and Cybersecurity must jointly lead the communication strategy for a critical incident (internal or external).
- How many of you use the same password for all the profiles you manage?
- How many of you use corporate email addresses while freelancing?
- How many Twitter and social media accounts do you have authenticated?
- How many of you have encrypted custodial document files?
- And do you have account recovery or suspension processes readily available?
- Would you know how to react and how long it would take you to react to these situations?
Calm down. It is true that new cyber risks exist. We are currently facing new scenarios, and we live in a new cyber reality.
We can refer to an inseparable triangle in online communication management: online reputation, Cybersecurity, and legality on the Web:
It is important that, in this situation, professional sectors fearlessly approach a pending issue for numerous companies and communication and Social Media professionals, Cybersecurity, and ICT Law experts: Improving the protection and care of both personal and corporate brands.
