DeepSec Talk 2022: Anticipating Damage Control: Communicating About Cybersecurity Within And Outside Organizations – Prof. Matthieu J. Guitton
Although cybersecurity aims at protecting individuals and organizations from the threats emerging from the massive use of and dependency upon digitalized spaces, the efforts of cybersecurity experts unfortunately do not always succeed in doing so. Therefore, integrated cybersecurity strategies of large organizations should minimally include a plan for damage control. Damage control strategies are typically handled by public relations experts and tend to follow a classical narrative, combining a mix of both apologizing and reassuring discourses. However, in an age of communication technologies, efficient narrative strategies have to be multi-layered. Indeed, while damage control is typically conceptualized as taking place after the occurrence of a damage causing event, it should also include an anticipatory component, both dealing with communication planning and pre-event communication. Furthermore, a damage control narrative can not exclusively focus on a