The Litigation Psychology Podcast - Episode 156 - Handling the Crisis Response to a Cybersecurity Breach

The Litigation Psychology Podcast

Sean Murphy, Practice Leader for CSI's Crisis Communications Practice, talks with Dr. Steve Wood about handling the crisis response to cybersecurity breaches. Sean offers good and bad examples of companies involved in cybersecurity crises, how they handled those situations, and what were the outcomes. Sean shares a guide that companies who have successfully navigated cybersecurity breaches and risks followed by taking a methodical, strategic approach to a crisis:

1. Top management led the crisis response;
2. Communicated quickly and transparently about the breach;
3. Designated an effective spokesperson;
4. Offered a solution;
5. Never played the blame game;
6. Made a change in how they handled their customer's data to prevent this from happening again

Lastly, Sean shares his thoughts on how to handle internal communications. He covers the importance of having your crisis team work as part of the privileged team so that those communications are protected in any future potential litigation. And he also talks about the value of having a crisis plan in advance that outlines management of company policies on what and how employees can and should communicate and when.