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NEW YORK, April 15—New York public relations agency PepperCom has joined forces with a technical services firm, a law firm, and a management consultancy to launch CyberCrisisNetwork, described as “a complete crisis management solution aimed at helping corporations plan, prepare, respond and recover from any crisis situation.”
According to PepperCom managing director Steve Cody, CyberCrisisNetwork was developed to address the many components of crisis management including communications, legal and IT consulting. PepperCom will partner with Proskauer Rose, one of the nation’s largest law firms; Stroz Associates, a consulting and technical services firm; and management consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“Terrorism, and more specifically cyber-terrorism, are areas that most companies are not properly prepared to deal with on any level, so the formation of our CyberCrisisNetwork was an obvious next step,” said Cody. “And while many firms offer one component of crisis management, none offer the complete solution by bringing the legal, consulting and communications functions together to work hand-in-hand during a crisis.”
During the past few months, the members of CyberCrisisNetwork have been touring the country to talk about cyber-terrorism and crisis management as part of an ongoing seminar series targeted at corporate America. Cody says that while many companies have some crisis management plan in place, many have not been updated post 9/11, making them virtually obsolete.
“Even more alarming is that most of the companies have not found a way to successfully integrate their communications, legal and IT consulting staff in the unfortunate event that they have to respond to a crisis,” he says.
Network members have expertise in areas ranging from updating crisis communications plans to address new threats including cyber-terrorism to running attack and penetration drills to asses how vulnerable a company is to a cybercrime. The firms can also reviewing insurance policies to evaluate a company’s level of coverage; and work to help a company identify and secure its most critical assets.
“Traditionally, in the immediate minutes and hours following a cybercrime, a company’s executive management team, along with their legal, IT and communication departments each separately scramble to create a ‘band-aid’ solution to the problem, and in the process can create additional problems with their public statements and messages,” said Chris Wolf, partner and chairman of the litigation and policy group at Proskauer Rose.
“CyberCrisisNetwork will work with companies to ensure that they prepared and integrated ahead of time to help minimize the damage and liability that a company has.”
According to PepperCom managing director Steve Cody, CyberCrisisNetwork was developed to address the many components of crisis management including communications, legal and IT consulting. PepperCom will partner with Proskauer Rose, one of the nation’s largest law firms; Stroz Associates, a consulting and technical services firm; and management consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“Terrorism, and more specifically cyber-terrorism, are areas that most companies are not properly prepared to deal with on any level, so the formation of our CyberCrisisNetwork was an obvious next step,” said Cody. “And while many firms offer one component of crisis management, none offer the complete solution by bringing the legal, consulting and communications functions together to work hand-in-hand during a crisis.”
During the past few months, the members of CyberCrisisNetwork have been touring the country to talk about cyber-terrorism and crisis management as part of an ongoing seminar series targeted at corporate America. Cody says that while many companies have some crisis management plan in place, many have not been updated post 9/11, making them virtually obsolete.
“Even more alarming is that most of the companies have not found a way to successfully integrate their communications, legal and IT consulting staff in the unfortunate event that they have to respond to a crisis,” he says.
Network members have expertise in areas ranging from updating crisis communications plans to address new threats including cyber-terrorism to running attack and penetration drills to asses how vulnerable a company is to a cybercrime. The firms can also reviewing insurance policies to evaluate a company’s level of coverage; and work to help a company identify and secure its most critical assets.
“Traditionally, in the immediate minutes and hours following a cybercrime, a company’s executive management team, along with their legal, IT and communication departments each separately scramble to create a ‘band-aid’ solution to the problem, and in the process can create additional problems with their public statements and messages,” said Chris Wolf, partner and chairman of the litigation and policy group at Proskauer Rose.
“CyberCrisisNetwork will work with companies to ensure that they prepared and integrated ahead of time to help minimize the damage and liability that a company has.”
