A Plan for Teaming with IT to Build a Communicator-Led Cyber Regime

Communicators are accustomed to being at the forefront of organizational change and reputation risk situations. Call it their comfort zone.

Communicators help organizations understand how media is evolving, have a strong grasp of the workings of human behavior and know whom to partner with to make a difference.

For these reasons, the public and private sectors are embracing communicator-led cybersecurity models that harmonize the C-Suite without burdening IT professionals.

At present we are in a ‘lukewarm war’ era. Cold war or hot war do not define the need to protect citizens, communities, corporations and countries. Today’s enemy is a combination of three main types of cyberattacks: ransomware, nation-state-sponsored attacks and disinformation campaigns.

A threat to expose the information of customers, ransomware is top of mind due to a steady increase in attacks and an uptick in the amount of ransom requested, and often received. Attacks strike at inconvenient times. Perpetrators prioritize targets based on forecasted M&As.

Viewing the threat of ransomware through numbers illustrates its gravity. It takes an average of 280 days to identify and contain a breach and costs $1.