Public Relations

In cybersecurity, Public Relations (PR) refers to the strategic management of an organization's public image and communication surrounding cybersecurity incidents, vulnerabilities, and overall security posture. It's about shaping public perception, maintaining trust, and mitigating reputational damage from cyber events.

Key aspects of cybersecurity PR include:

• Crisis Communication (Breach Response): This is arguably the most critical aspect. It involves preparing and executing a communication plan for a data breach, ransomware attack, or other significant cyber incident. The goal is to inform affected parties (customers, partners, regulators), demonstrate accountability, outline remediation steps, and restore confidence. This includes drafting public statements, press releases, FAQ documents, and managing media inquiries.

• Reputation Management: Proactively building and maintaining a positive public image of the organization's cybersecurity commitment. This involves highlighting security investments, certifications, best practices, and expert personnel to build trust before an incident occurs.

• Transparency and Trust-Building: Deciding what information to share, when, and how, in a way that fosters trust with stakeholders without compromising ongoing investigations or legal positions. Balancing transparency with strategic communication is key.

• Stakeholder Communication: Managing communication with a diverse range of audiences, including customers, employees, investors, regulators, law enforcement, and the general public, each with their own concerns and information needs.

• Thought Leadership: Positioning the organization and its security leaders as experts in the field, contributing to industry discussions, sharing insights, and demonstrating a proactive stance on cybersecurity.

• Mitigation of Misinformation: Counteracting false narratives, rumors, or misinformation that may spread during a cyber crisis or when security vulnerabilities are disclosed.

Effective cybersecurity PR is essential because a technical security incident can quickly become a severe reputation crisis if mishandled publicly. It requires close coordination between security teams, legal counsel, marketing, and executive leadership.

ThreatNG's capabilities are invaluable for cybersecurity PR, providing the essential external visibility and real-time intelligence needed to manage reputation and respond effectively during a crisis proactively.

1. External Discovery: ThreatNG performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery without needing connectors. This is fundamental for PR, as it identifies assets that attackers see, which could lead to public exposure or become part of a crisis narrative.

• Example: ThreatNG can discover an undocumented, public-facing server or a misconfigured cloud storage bucket inadvertently leaking sensitive information. Identifying this through external discovery allows the PR team to prepare or pre-emptively manage a potential data breach narrative before it becomes a public scandal.

2. External Assessment: ThreatNG's external assessment ratings directly quantify risks that can quickly escalate into PR crises:

• Brand Damage Susceptibility: ThreatNG directly assesses this score, which is derived from attack surface intelligence, digital risk intelligence, ESG Violations, Sentiment, and Financials (Lawsuits, SEC filings, SEC Form 8-Ks, and Negative News).

  • Example: ThreatNG can identify numerous newly registered typosquatted domains mimicking the organization's brand, or detect fake social media accounts. This indicates high Brand Damage Susceptibility, allowing PR teams to proactively address impersonations before widespread customer confusion or financial fraud leads to reputational harm.

• Data Leak Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses this by analyzing external attack surface, digital risk intelligence based on Cloud and SaaS Exposure, Dark Web Presence (Compromised Credentials), and Sentiment and Financials.

  • Example: ThreatNG can detect exposed sensitive data (e.g., customer records, internal documents) in misconfigured public cloud storage or inadvertent exposure in public code repositories. PR teams gain an early warning of a potential data breach, allowing them to prepare crisis communication, manage messaging, and potentially mitigate the scope of public impact.

• ESG Exposure: ThreatNG explicitly evaluates discovered "environmental, social, and governance (ESG) violations" through its external findings and analysis of media sentiment and financial indicators.

  • Example: ThreatNG might flag a publicly visible ESG-related controversy (e.g., a reported environmental incident or a social issue) that also impacts sentiment metrics. PR can then proactively manage public messaging around these non-cyber issues that can still severely damage a reputation.

3. Reporting: ThreatNG provides comprehensive reports that are crucial for informing PR strategy and crisis communication:

• Prioritized Report: This report highlights specific external risks (e.g., a critical brand impersonation, a severe data leak vulnerability) that pose immediate threats to public perception, guiding rapid PR action.

• Security Ratings Report: This report offers an objective, high-level overview of the organization's external security posture. PR teams can use it to publicly demonstrate a commitment to cybersecurity or track improvements in overall security perception over time.

• U.S. SEC Filings (DarCache 8K): This provides public companies with context on their publicly declared material events, including cybersecurity incidents.

  • Example: PR teams can cross-reference internal incident reports with ThreatNG's DarCache 8K to ensure consistency and transparency in public statements regarding SEC-mandated cybersecurity disclosures.

4. Continuous Monitoring: ThreatNG monitors external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings. This is vital for real-time awareness, allowing PR teams to manage narratives and counter misinformation proactively.

• Example: ThreatNG can continuously track new brand impersonation attempts (e.g., newly registered typosquatted domains, fake social media accounts) or monitor for mentions of data leaks on the dark web related to the organization. This allows PR to get ahead of the story, issue pre-emptive warnings, or prepare crisis communication before the incident breaks publicly.

5. Investigation Modules: ThreatNG's investigation modules provide granular detail for deeply analyzing publicly visible issues that could impact PR:

• Domain Intelligence (Domain Name Permutations, Email Intelligence): Crucial for detecting phishing/impersonation sites and email spoofing.

  • Example: Uncovering newly registered typosquatted domains (e.g., yourbrand-support.com) that could be used for phishing scams. This allows PR to issue warnings or initiate takedowns before customers are harmed and the brand's reputation is eroded.

• Dark Web Presence: Provides early warning of impending issues by monitoring "Organizational mentions..., Associated Ransomware Events, [and] Associated Compromised Credentials".

  • Example: Detecting compromised credentials or discussing a potential breach on the dark web. This gives PR teams crucial lead time to prepare crisis communication, allowing them to manage the narrative effectively if the incident becomes public.

• Archived Web Pages: Can show historical public exposure of sensitive information.

  • Example: Providing evidence of past exposed data or misconfigured pages that have been archived. This helps PR teams understand the historical context of a potential leak or public vulnerability when responding to media inquiries.

6. Intelligence Repositories (DarCache): These continuously updated repositories provide critical contextual data for PR strategy and crisis response:

• DarCache Dark Web, DarCache Rupture (Compromised Credentials), DarCache Ransomware: Provide real-time insights into threat actor activity and potential public disclosures.

  • Example: Information on a specific ransomware gang's tactics (from DarCache Ransomware) can help PR understand the nature of a potential attack and frame public statements accurately and empathetically following an incident.

• DarCache ESG: Directly supports managing public perception related to environmental, social, and governance issues.

  • Example: If the company faces public criticism for an environmental issue, ThreatNG can show if related data exposures compound the PR crisis, informing a more holistic public response.

Complementary Solutions: ThreatNG's external insights create powerful synergies with other PR and crisis management tools:

• Crisis Management/PR Platforms: ThreatNG's real-time external threat intelligence (e.g., brand impersonation alerts, dark web mentions of breaches) can be fed into crisis management platforms to trigger communication workflows, enabling rapid, informed, and coordinated public response.

• Brand Protection & Takedown Services: ThreatNG's detection of phishing sites or fake social media accounts (via Domain Intelligence, Social Media module) can directly trigger takedown requests by specialized brand protection services, mitigating immediate reputational damage before it escalates into a wider PR crisis.

• Media Monitoring & Sentiment Analysis Tools: ThreatNG's objective data on external exposures can provide context to insights from media monitoring tools. If a media tool flags negative sentiment, ThreatNG can help determine if that sentiment is linked to a specific external security issue, like a data leak or an exposed vulnerability.

• Legal Counsel Tools: ThreatNG can provide verifiable, external evidence of cybersecurity incidents (e.g., data leaks, domain impersonation) crucial for legal teams in managing regulatory disclosures, potential lawsuits, and drafting accurate public statements post-breach.