When a company goes through a public relations disaster like a data breach, it often gets the word "embattled" next to its name in newspaper headlines. Case in point: after its embarrassing breaches, the Office of Personnel Management has been in "embattled" status throughout the month June.
You've probably heard about the OPM breaches exposing 4.2 million personnel records of current and former government employees. And now, NBC News reports that as the agency struggles with damage to its reputation, it hired a security adviser to help it sort out its cyber issues.
Of course, it's better to avoid this kind of mess in the first place. Let's look at what you can do to help your clients prepare for security incidents.
Help Your Clients Prevent a Data Breach and PR Fallout
Data breach risk management is about prevention and damage control, but it's also about helping IT consultants like you avoid lawsuits. If your clients face a security incident, you could be sued for the cost and headache that comes with it (see Errors and Omissions Insurance for info about covering your legal costs).
Because you and your clients share financial risks during a breach, let's look at five strategies that will help your clients prevent security incidents and avoid a PR nightmare:
- Suggest beefing up employee security training. Every company has employee training, but it typically isn't much more than a page in a handbook. As we wrote in "One Thing You Can Do Today to Reduce Your Professional Liability Risk," companies are pushing for more thorough training to help prevent phishing attacks and other employee errors that can lead to breaches.
- Offer a security audit and provide solutions for the biggest security holes. Security best practices often include annual security audits. If you don't offer these services, consider networking with subcontractors who do. This can be a nice way to add value to your clients and connect with other IT professionals.
- Build a data breach response plan. Ensuring your clients have a plan in place can reduce the cost of an incident and leave nothing overlooked. Your clients should also have a point person or chief security officer who knows what to do in the event of a security incident.
- Educate clients about data breach costs. The OPM breach highlights how devastating a breach can be for a company's reputation, but there are also all sorts of monetary costs that come with security incidents. Investigations, cyber liability consultations, diminished revenue, and other costs can add up quickly. See "How Much Does a Data Breach Cost?" to learn more.
- Recommend investing in Cyber Liability Insurance. This valuable policy may cover many of the expenses that accompany a breach and help clients limit its damage – both financial and reputational.
On Selling Security
Ever wonder why some data breaches make bigger waves than others? The OPM breach is so contentious because it involved government employees and the agency blundered its security beforehand.
If your clients have a data breach, they'll want to be able to:
- Point to the steps taken to secure their IT.
- Show their customers that they fulfilled their professional obligations.
And that's how you can sell your services. Rather than selling your IT services simply as a "you-need-this" proposition, you can sell them as "this will help you avoid the mess that those other schmucks faced." In other words, you're selling peace of mind to your clients as well as IT solutions.
Thanks to a growing number of "embattled" companies, connecting with your clients' data breach anxiety may help you close more IT sales. Check in with clients about their security concerns – it may potentially lead to more work for you.
