Proactive Communication

A collection of 34 posts

Mailbag

📬 Mailbag: We know people don't believe us when we say security is our top priority. How can we be more authentic in our communications?

Authenticity in security comms isn't about perfect words, but consistent patterns over time. Only communicating when legally required gives stakeholders no baseline for trust. Credibility during incidents is earned through regular communication during normal operations.

Incident Response

The Template Trap

The organizations that communicate best during incidents built for it. Pre-established relationships, clear decision authority, and pre-negotiated boundaries. Authentic responses don't happen by accident.

Incident Response

How Organizations Sabotage Media Relations by Misunderstanding Security Communications

Security communications is more than media relations, but most organizations stop there. Journalists covering your incident are drawing on months of accumulated context including your customer support, executive messaging, and transparency record. All of it counts.

Ethics

A Communicator's Guide to Software Harm Prevention

Comms professionals need to be in the room before products ship — evaluating algorithmic bias, AI misuse potential, and data practices before they become headlines.

Incident Response

What Could Go Right?

"What could go wrong?" is a defensive posture that caps your influence. The security teams building real political capital ask a different question: what could go right? Reverse engineer that outcome, and incident response stops being damage control and starts being strategy.

Influence

Boost Your Team's Influence with Corporate Anthropology

Your organization has a culture and your security program either works with it or against it. Corporate anthropology gives you a framework for mapping that culture, building the right relationships, and crafting narratives that make security feel essential.

Incident Response

Decisive Under Fire

Why do decision frameworks outperform templates for managing security incident communications? Because they empower internal stakeholders with the right expertise to make critical communication decisions under pressure.

Incident Response

5 Communication Assets to Build Before Your Next Security Incident

Effective incident response requires proactive communication assets built in advance. Here are 5 foundational elements to streamline communications, enable nimble responses, and demonstrate your security team's ability to overcome complex challenges.

Incident Response

Introducing Discernible Experience: The Power of Persistent Practice

The Discernible Experience runs realistic communication simulations where security professionals from different organizations practice together. Same scenario, different perspectives — that's the point. You'll face challenges internal training never surfaces.

Ethics

How Data Ethics Makes Incident Response More Effective

Strong ethical data practices can enhance an organization's ability to respond effectively to security and privacy incidents.

Mailbag

📬 Mailbag: How do you regain trust after an initial communications misstep?

Whether it's a poorly timed announcement, an ill-considered tweet, or a misinterpreted internal message, the key to recovery lies in how you handle the aftermath. Here are a few recommendations on how to navigate your way back from a communications misstep.

Influence

📬 Mailbag: Where should security communications be on the organization chart?

A reader asks: Where should security communications be on the organization chart?

Proactive Communication

Takeaways from 2023 - and Resolutions for 2024

Here are three security communication patterns I observed the most often in 2023 and why you should resolve to address them in 2024.

Incident Response

📬 Mailbag: How do you manage/balance truthful communications about an incident/breach while mitigating legal exposure?

A reader asks: How do you manage truthful communications about an incident while mitigating legal exposure?

Guest Post Featured

“The solution is not buying another server, it’s having better communications.”

Q&A with DEF CON founder and CEO Jeff Moss on the value of security communications.

Case Study

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY: Twilio

Discernible was brought in by Twilio’s CISO to design a creative and easily deployable solution to entice people from across the security organization to speak, blog, and generally share the good work the teams were doing and engage more deeply with their cohort outside the company.

Guest Post

A CISOs right hand on how security communications can build credibility across the organization

Jessica Walters is Senior Security & IT Program Manager at Tessian, and former Chief of Staff to the CISO of Cisco’s Security Business Group. In this Q&A, she shares her perspective on how to use security communications proactively in building an effective security team.

Influence

Not Just Security: CISOs are Business Executives

New research shows effective communication strategy and execution is critical for CISOs to earn and maintain legitimacy with the business.

Guest Post

Keep Calm and Plan On: Expert Advice on Incident Response Communications

In this Q&A with Brooke Pearson, we discuss the relationship between internal and external communications as part of a comprehensive incident response program. Brooke is the former head of security awareness at Uber and a Discernible advisory board member.

Privacy Communication

Words with Impact: Communication Tips for Privacy Technologists

An interview with Discernible CEO Melanie Ensign and the Shifting Privacy Left Podcast.

Incident Response

Turning Incident Response Communications into a Sustainable Security Communications Program

The best incident response communications are built on a foundation of strong, ongoing security communications. Here are a few thoughts on how to do that.

Proactive Communication

Words that Work: Persuasive Language for Security and Privacy Communications

Counting distribution and engagement tells you why you're busy. It doesn't tell you if your communications are working. Do you know which words actually land with your security and privacy audiences? There's only one way to find out — start measuring.

Proactive Communication

Does Your Security Comms Strategy Need an Upgrade?

The best crisis communication strategy is the one you're doing when nothing's on fire. Consistent, routine security and privacy communications reduce both the frequency and impact of crises — because demonstrated care compounds before you ever need it.

Proactive Communication

Risk Communications: Recognizing Turning Points and Managing Decisions

Not communicating about security until it escalates into a crisis is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, security communicators should constantly be on the lookout for critical turning points that can determine the direction of the organization’s future or cost them their reputation.

Incident Response

Risk Communications: An Introduction

Security is about more than managing risk. It's also about helping non-experts make decisions with it. That's risk communication — and whether you've studied it or not, you're already doing it. The question is whether you're doing it well.