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If your company possesses sensitive or confidential information, the mere mention of the word ransomware may be enough to make your heart race – particularly given the global reach and devastating impact of the recent WannaCry cyber-attack, so powerful that it crippled infrastructure in 150 countries. While your company may have strong operational plans for disaster scenarios, do they address how to contain and manage reputational damage?

When faced with difficult questions or allegations, defensiveness is often the most common response. But when this scene plays out on a public stage, constant rebuttals and shifting the blame only incites and prolongs media coverage.

I was fortunate to work in Vice President Joe Biden’s press office from 2015 until earlier this year. Each day in the White House was unique and different, and I was honored to be a small part of the Obama Administration. I learned something new every day, but here are my favorite lessons:

The days of faxing – or even emailing – press releases are long gone. Today, if you want to get the word out, you have to think digital. Here are some quick tips:

When a crisis breaks are you ready? It happens every day. You get the call:

If you think fake news could not possibly impact your company, we have one word: Pizzagate. When a North Carolina man walked into a little-known Washington, D.C. restaurant with an assault rifle earlier this year, the widespread impact and dangerous implications of this growing trend proved that no brand – no matter how powerful or obscure – is safe.

I recently sat down with former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis to discuss today’s security challenges and his thoughts on mitigating them. No stranger to complex security matters, having guided the City of Boston through the Marathon bombing and dozens of other events, Davis emphasized that preparedness is key to keeping an organization’s people and assets safe.  Davis, now founder and CEO of Edward Davis Inc, also stressed that being prepared means integrating crisis communications into your crisis management plan.

United Airlines' harsh treatment of a passenger on April 9^th provided 34 seconds of intense video footage that few will forget.

"If every CEO in America isn’t sitting up and thinking what will I do on the very worst day when one of my employees is caught on video behaving badly, they have made a colossal mistake," Denterlein President Diana Pisciotta told NECN Business last night. The United Airlines crisis communication gaff this month caused major public outcry and a plummeting stock price -- all of which could have been avoided with good crisis communication planning, Pisciotta said.

Protecting an organization’s reputation is one of the most important responsibilities of directors today. But what, exactly, is the director’s role in crisis management?