BCW Introduces BCW CyberTREE™, A Strategic Model for Cybersecurity Crisis Communications Response and Planning

BCW (Burson, Cohn & Wolfe), a leading global communications agency, today announced the launch of BCW CyberTREE™, a strategic model for cybersecurity crisis communications response and planning. Built using BCW’s key learnings from managing and studying myriad high-profile cybersecurity issues and crises, BCW CyberTREE enables clients to create tailored cybersecurity crisis communications strategies based on more than 25 individual factors that influence reputation risk during a cyber event. BCW CyberTREE also provides a battle-tested roadmap to help clients develop cybersecurity crisis communications playbooks or to audit existing plans.

“Cybersecurity threats continue to become more and more sophisticated, however managing cybersecurity reputation risk has not kept pace with the evolution of threats,” said Donna Imperato, Global CEO, BCW. “BCW CyberTREE™ is our firm’s effort to codify and systemize a strategic approach to cybersecurity crisis communications that helps clients mitigate business and reputational damage during and after an attack.”

BCW CyberTREE was developed to help client communication teams quickly and efficiently integrate with their internal Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs), which typically also include specialized external legal counsel and forensics consultants. CyberTREE accounts for key legal and regulatory considerations, as well as the inherent challenges of cybersecurity forensics, to help protect corporate reputation and meet stakeholder expectations in an increasingly precarious environment.

BCW CyberTREE is comprised of more than 25 individual factors related to cybersecurity crisis communications and is organized into four domains:

• Threat considerations are based upon the nature of the threat actor, the exploit (i.e., the network vulnerability and attack mechanism), and potential stakeholder impact based on information accessed.

• Response considerations, which focus on ensuring the effectiveness of a company’s cybersecurity communications response.

• Expectations decision points, which ensure alignment between a client’s operational and communications response with media and stakeholder expectations. And,

• Engagement considerations, which are designed to help BCW guide clients as they plan and execute a strategic, highly coordinated communications response leading up to during, and immediately after a cybersecurity disclosure announcement.

“Stakeholder opinions about how well an organization managed a cyberattack can be as important as the technical recovery itself,” said Michael Estevez, Executive Vice President, Managing Director and Cybersecurity Crisis Team Lead, BCW. “We created CyberTREE to help clients systematically evaluate the reputation risks associated with their specific situation and create a tailored crisis communications strategy to help maintain the trust and confidence of their customers, employees and other key constituencies.”

About BCW

BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe), one of the world’s largest full-service global communications agencies, is in the business of moving people on behalf of clients. Founded by the merger of Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe, BCW delivers digitally and data-driven creative content and integrated communications programs grounded in earned media and scaled across all channels for clients in the B2B, consumer, corporate, crisis management, CSR, healthcare, public affairs and technology sectors. BCW is a part of WPP (NYSE: WPP), a creative transformation company. For more information, visit www.bcw-global.com.

For more information about BCW CyberTREE contact BCW’s cybersecurity specialty group at cyber@bcw-global.com.

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Contact information

Catherine Sullivan
212.601.3205
Catherine.Sullivan@bcw-global.com