4 Tips to Keep Key Stakeholders Happy in the Event of a Cyberattack

Susan Ganeshan, CMO, Clarabridge

Cyberattacks are becoming more and more common, with advertising agency WPP, pharmaceutical company Merck & Co and Russian oil giant Rosneft, the most recent to fall victim to a global ransomware attack in June. It’s an increasingly common crisis, and brands need to be properly prepared.

Cyberattacks impact a range of key stakeholders—including customers, investors and employees—all of which require a unique plan of action. The potential damage of an attack and the diversity in stakeholder needs means that businesses must have a detailed and executable plan of action in order to survive amidst today’s volatility.  

Devising and following through on a crisis plan is no easy feat, so here are a few tips for keeping customers, employees and investors calm in the wake of an attack.

1. Communication is vital –– Though businesses often look to satisfy customer demands first, the initial task is to communicate internally, and to do it quickly. As the crisis evolves and the business’s course of action adapts, ensure that all employees are kept up-to-date so they can properly communicate with external stakeholders. Once employees are aligned on strategy, you’ll need to deliver a transparent explanation and course of action, explaining to investors and customers exactly what has transpired and how it impacts them. It’s important to have this information readily available across channels—including social, email and your company website—to ensure that it reaches everyone.

2. Plan to automate tasks –– Workflow during a crisis changes drastically, as employees are needed for a range of duties. Creating a crisis plan that lifts certain responsibilities from employees and automatically sets them in motion allows for more efficient troubleshooting. Especially in the event of a cyberattack where a business might lose the ability to complete online or network based tasks, it is important to have pre-assigned tasks.

3. Take ownership –– Transferring the blame almost guarantees that customers, employees and investors will lose confidence in a company to which they are otherwise loyal. Though the business might not always be responsible for the crisis, especially a cyber attack where hackers are often difficult to track down, it is definitely responsible for how it manages that crisis. Delivering an effective response, with empathy and understanding can go a long way in putting key stakeholders at ease.

4. Think about the future –– It isn’t enough to deal with the immediate impact of a global cyberattack. Businesses must consider how and why the attack occurred –– does the business need to increase security provisions to protect itself against another attack? Make sure to communicate your strategy for preventing another attack in the future. Mitigating the immediate effects of a global cyber attack is important, but with the inevitability of these attacks, businesses must project future strategy as well.

 [author]About the Author: Susan Ganeshan is the chief marketing officer of Clarabridge in Reston, Va. As leader of the Clarabridge marketing team, Ganeshan defines the brand and enables both Clarabridge and its partners to promote and deliver on the promise of customer centricity. During her 25 year career, she has held diverse roles including content marketing, product marketing, lead generation, event management, product management, engineering, quality assurance, implementation consulting, training, and sales support with organizations such as newBrandAnalytics, webMethods and Software AG. [/author]