CommCore Blog and News

We are all now very familiar with the simple advice to prevent the spread of COVID-19. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams refers to the three W’s to make the message stick: Wash your hands, Watch your distance, and Wear a mask.

We should also be familiar with the simple advice for Safe Cyber Practices which we call it the three S’s formula:

• Strong passwords
• Suspicious emails – Inspect all emails carefully before opening
• Sharing of computers and laptops with strangers should never happen

We’re half-way through national Cyber Security Awareness Month, dedicated to learning and practicing safe cyber practices. Congratulations to those communicators who have worked with your IT, HR and Legal colleagues to promote best practices at the office and in the home to avoid hacks, breaches, ransomware, identity theft and the whole slew of attacks.

There’s still time this October to celebrate the awareness month – or redouble your efforts. Unlike COVID-19, we probably won’t get a vaccine that will eradicate cyber-crime and breaches. Just look at the variety of attacks in the top breaches of 2020.

For communicators, cyber awareness is an opportunity to be creative and collaborative. Think about company emails, banners, town halls, staff meetings, CEO/CISO updates and the need to push messages that teach and remind about best practices. The economic and reputation costs of cyber-crime are enormous.

IT professionals always remind us that the latest hacking attempt is just around the corner. As communicators, we need to be prepared for the inevitable. Here are a few tips:

• Make sure your crisis communications plan is updated and contains decision trees and scenario planning for cyber events.
•  Add cyber components to crisis drills or do a stand-along cyber crisis drill. This improves the crisis team’s ability to react quicker and smarter.
• If the cyber attack does take place, practice the 3 F’s when communicating. Be Fast, Flexible and Factual. Caveat: In a cyber incident, it’s not always necessary to be fast in public communications; once the news is public, it’s harder to catch the perpetrators.