Tag Archives: planning and prevention

What’s good about networking is great for hackers

Organizations are wise to adapt to the unstoppable force that is social networking.  At this point, if you don’t agree please refer to the myriad perspectives that advocate this point, right after you crawl out from under your rock.

Yes, there are reputational risks for companies/brands that engage through social media.  These have been well documented with ample perspectives on how to prepare against such risks.  (Ahem.  Cough, cough.)

In addition, there are technological risks.  Being “social” on these networks inherently implies that people are casual with information and, at times, complacent about how widespread that information is being shared.  When (un)official company networks sprout, it’s the candid banter of employees or alumni typically reveals more than an untrained eye can see.

Like mosquitoes to standing water, hackers love social networks.  The casual banter provides the information from which they can plan attacks against company infrastructures.   If you have the stomach for it, you should read the play-by-play account of how a team of hackers used information pilfered from Facebook to infiltrate the entire infrastructure of an organization: 

Continue reading What’s good about networking is great for hackers

A Sporting Analogy (and Poll)

Pick a team sport.  Any sport.  Your team gathers to prepare for the upcoming season.  In your first meeting, your coach hands each of you a highly detailed playbook.  He reads aloud each page to your team.  The playbook details:

  • Goals for the season and winning strategies
  • Your team’s hierarchy:  captains, starters, matchups against various opponents, backups, etc.
  • On-field expectations:  how players should call plays, anticipate, adjust, communicate
  • A “matchup” assessment  of the team’s strengths and weaknesses versus each opponent that might be faced during the season

Continue reading A Sporting Analogy (and Poll)

Sharing a Lament with our BCP Brethren

A pair of business continuity planning (BCP) experts recently voiced concerns about their profession.  Tim Armit from the U.K. recently observed that the scope of business continuity too often gets restricted to physical disasters and IT failures.  Ken Simpson later weighs in from Australia with an observation that BCP is becoming more fixated on management systems and certifications, rather than the holistic ability to manage incidents and recover.

We who focus on crisis/reputation management should echo their concerns.

Continue reading Sharing a Lament with our BCP Brethren

“Ask the Crisis Manager” Vol. 1, No. 2: Search engine results and planning for nonprofit/educational sector

I’m really pleased with the quality of questions received for this feature.  Please keep those great questions coming.  Here’s the latest installment of “Ask the Crisis Manager.”

S. Wallace:  My client has done a lot of very good work for his company, but it’s the one negative thing he did that’s popping up at the top of the Google searches.  How can I get that one negative thing moved down on the Google results so that it’s not top of mind for people? 

  Continue reading “Ask the Crisis Manager” Vol. 1, No. 2: Search engine results and planning for nonprofit/educational sector

Crisis Management Training: Choose Wisely

TrainingYou may have heard me say this before:  crisis simulations are not trainings.  Simulations are great exercises to identify gaps for improvement.  Participants may get tangential experience through artificially applied heat and time pressure.  But do simulation participants emerge as better crisis managers?  Probably not.

Trainings, when done well, are customized improvement labs.  Covering each component of a crisis management capability requires different modules of training….  Continue reading Crisis Management Training: Choose Wisely