Comments on: When You Become the Enemy

By: Dante Soriano

Dante Soriano — Mon, 28 May 2012 14:07:02 +0000

No one would want to be “unreputable”, especially if you’re a big company with a respected brand.

IT administrators are brand keepers, as well. They should be in constant watch if any of the company email users, or the company website has been compromised. Being a marketing manager, I know the perils of doing “damage control.” Prevention is still the key. That’s why I also keep a close watch over not just with how our site looks and what it says but also if in any way, it can be hacked and be made an instrument of malicious attacks.

But, so often, the crises managers are the one who gets the hero’s prize, not those who prevented a crisis in the first place. Oh, well.

By: Emmanuel Carabott

Emmanuel Carabott — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:29:39 +0000

It’s a bit hard to take sides on this to be honest. True, people who are security minded are likely to understand that a breach cannot be 100% prevented by anyone.

Problem is you’re very likely to have customers that arent security minded and all they will see is that if they give you their details they might end up with their details compromised because if a hacker could do it once, they can likely do it again.

Of course on the other hand it will look worse if it becomes apparent that you’re trying to hide it or if it is obvious you’re trying to down play the situation.

By: Ian Davis

Ian Davis — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:45:54 +0000

I agree with Ryan that the way you handle this in PR terms is also very important. Many security breaches go unreported, unless hackers themselves brag about them because many companies will not admit for dear life that they have been hacked. Probably they are afraid that when they admit it, this will make them look incompetent but everybody who has even a vague idea of security knows no matter how good you are, you can never be sure you are 100 per cent hacker-proof.

By: Ryan Hemke

Ryan Hemke — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:38:02 +0000

It’s also important to remember that the way you express this information to the public is equally important. More damaging than the files being distributed to users through a malicious attack is the damage your reputation and brand can face if you can’t face the press and tell them why it happened, how fast the response was, and why it won’t happen again.