In the 1990s and early 2000s, the primary targets of cyber attacks were governmental organizations, financial service brands, and large high-tech firms. Today, every industry – from supply chain to healthcare to retail – and businesses of all sizes are targets for threat actors.
Moreover, from social engineering to email phishing to ransomware – attacks have accelerated since COVID. In fact, our client SonicWall’s 2022 Cyber Threat Report found that ransomware increased a staggering 105% worldwide in 2021 alone.
Cybersecurity Becomes Top Concern for Corporate Boards
IBM’s latest research found that the cost of a single data breach grew 10% to $4.24 million last year. This figure includes customer loss and the resources required to rebuild revenue after an attack.
Because corporate boards and C-suites have fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and responsibility for mitigating business risk, they’re increasingly prioritizing cybersecurity. Sixty-eight percent of board members recently told Harvard Business Review that they regularly or constantly discuss cybersecurity.
Why CMOs Must Prepare Now
Marketing departments are often overlooked as stakeholders in IT incident response plans. Yet, marketers are tasked with corporate reputation, customer and prospect communications, as well as investor and external messaging. Therefore, CMOs must be equally as prepared for a cyber attack as their CTO and CISO counterparts.
SonicWall’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Blaine (@geoffblaine) and I joined PRovoke Media’s Megan Miller on a podcast to discuss tools marketers should prepare before an attack occurs and top considerations for breach response.
Watch our discussion now for tangible advice on cybersecurity PR, must-have elements of a crisis comms plan and how to control reactive communications across all marketing channels.
