The CrowdStrike glitch that led to a historic outage across airlines, banks, hospitals and more is perhaps the most extreme example of a cybersecurity PR crisis. Even though the meltdown wasn’t caused by a cyberattack, the incident still left CrowdStrike scrambling to save its reputation.
PR professionals become a steadying force during crises—whether zero-day attacks, executive turnovers, layoffs, or IT disruptions. Their strategic handling can mean the difference between reputation preservation and irreparable damage. Without a public relations team, leaders risk responding poorly to a critical incident by reacting based on emotion or responding robotically to a sensitive situation.
Your PR Team: More Than Just Damage Control
In moments of crisis, empathetic and clear communication become critical in shaping how a company is perceived internally and externally. For instance, in the aftermath of widespread layoffs in the tech industry, CEOs had to commit to the balancing act of conveying empathy and career support while outlining clear paths for affected employees. PR professionals directly supported crafting the message, ensuring leaders came across as empathetic and did not use insensitive language that may negatively affect employee morale and company culture.
Leadership transitions are pivotal moments for organizations, often drawing scrutiny from journalists and stakeholders alike. In such times, having a dedicated PR team is indispensable as they serve as the first line of defense, proactively managing the narrative.
A skilled PR team can strategically develop and disseminate communication materials, such as blog posts and commentary, to announce leadership changes. The PR team ensures the messaging is clear, addressing the reasons behind the transition and outlining future plans. Moreover, PR professionals stand prepared with their clients to provide timely and approved commentary to address media inquiries, maintaining transparency and reinforcing the organization's credibility amidst change.
The CISO Nightmare: A Zero-Day Attack
What keeps CISOs awake at night? The fear of a zero-day attack. During these devastating times, absolute chaos ensues, and many departments, including security, IAM, DevOps, legal, HR, leadership and PR, have to work together to figure out the situation. The first step is having a robust incident response plan that clearly lays out all the steps each department must take to quarantine the breach and address the situation with all relevant public and private parties.
PR professionals need to act swiftly to manage both internal and external messaging. Immediate priorities include crafting timely statements to notify stakeholders, customers, and partners and organizing press conferences or media briefings to address concerns and uphold the company's reputation as a trusted guardian of sensitive data in our current threat landscape.
You Must Be Ready Before The Crisis
The cybersecurity industry understands the necessity of being ready for any situation, more so than any other industry. This is because of the shared mission amongst every cybersecurity organization: keeping sensitive data and information safe. When organizations hire a talented PR agency, they are not just an external company supporting your messaging; they are a team directly weaving into your marketing department, learning your product, your leaders' messaging and tone, and your company goals.
PR professionals are essential guardians of reputation in the cybersecurity industry, where trust is paramount. As threats evolve, companies must prioritize PR readiness alongside technical preparedness. Investing in strategic communication and cultivating a culture of media awareness among leadership allows cybersecurity companies to weather any crisis and emerge stronger.