How to Survive a Data Breach: A Pocket Guide

Chapter 3. Winning Hearts and Minds

Formulating a media strategy

Data breaches come with huge costs in terms of fines, negative publicity, lost business and sweeteners to affected customers, so it’s no wonder that many are kept in house if at all possible.

However, if a breach is serious enough to warrant reporting to the regulators, there is a strong chance that the ‘truth will out’ and, if the news is going to hit the media, it is vital that the game is played on your terms. Yet nowhere in breach crisis management is the lack of planning more acute than in the sphere of public relations control.

‘Too many times we see companies making policies on the hoof,’ says Dhadda. ‘It looks shoddy because they haven’t thought it through at all, and the tension ...