Crisis Response Elaborately in a of Facebook Cyber-Hacking - Case Study Example

Crisis Response: Cyber–hacking A significant population around the world composes of Facebook users. This global phenomenon has most of its users interests converged to generally socializing. People therefore, participate in discussion groups, team building, marketing, educating, disclosure of personal information, gossip, contact, stalking, and identity theft, among others. Student life without Facebook is almost inconceivable. Since its foundation in 2004, this popular social network service has quickly become both a basic tool for and a mirror of personal identity, social interaction and network building among students (Debatin & Bernhard 83). Cyber-hacking is a potential threat to the company due to it malicious nature and the harm it causes. This paper will address crisis response elaborately in a case of Facebook cyber-hacking. For this paper, the consideration will be a case where a hacking event takes place involving different Facebook accounts that are used by governments as a means of network building in order to promote international unity. The hacker targets two countries that have recently developed polarity due to political differences. Their situation is so delicate such that a hate speech posted on social media can spark war between the two nations. With this knowledge in mind, maliciously motivated to spark cruelty between the two potential enemies, the hacker drafts very offensive messages and posts them on these Facebook accounts. The perception will be the two nations are at the verge of war since they now throw words at each other yet behind the scenes, hacking is involved. Consequently, those who may feel that they have had enough of the offenses may decide to take the law in their hands a do what they think is best. The best they can do here is starting a war, naively. War leads to bloodshed, death, loss families, property and peace. The case projected above involves to nations only. What would it be like in a case where more nations are involved? Several countries at war would mean that would be the beginning of world war III. A small leak can sink an enormous ship like the titanic; a brief malicious offensive post on Facebook can spark a world war. A crisis is defined as a significant threat to operations that can have negative consequences if not handled properly. In The Corporate Communications setting, all predicaments impend to stain an organization’s reputation (Dilenschneider 20).  A crisis reflects poorly on an organization and will damage a reputation to some degree. The threat of a crisis can affect the organization’s financial safety, its loyal customers, inhabitants around the production facility. The crisis response phase is when management must actually respond to a crisis.  The post-crisis phase looks for ways to better prepare for the next crisis and fulfills commitments made during the crisis phase including follow-up information. Crisis costs money, which offers the motivation to avoid, lessen and react in manners that best protect capital and human resources, and generally “reputation” which some feature as the essence of effective crisis response (Coombs and Holladay4). The immediate impact on the employees can be the fear of their job security. The technical manager and his team, especially, can feel threatened as this is their area that is facing this challenge. This can lead to them feeling incompetent and fear losing their jobs. Since a crisis is beyond the typical challenges that the company faces, it is more or less threating. Moreover, the threat will often have a ripple effect which is which affects the surrounding community. In the case of Facebook, the users are the immediate community. They are most likely to be among the first victims. Negative news coverage can cause misunderstandings through contradictions, exaggerations, among other causes. The company’s position on the issue of the crisis is also an area that can be presented wrongly. In crisis response, the team responsible should delegate a spokesperson who should monitor the media and the information that it delivers to the public. By so doing the spokesperson can moderate the information and give out the company’s position as it is. The specific messages that one should communicate to each of these publics is the exact description of the crisis, which is hacking and posting of malicious messages on a critical Facebook page, the effect it has had on the readers so far, the extent of its accessibility among others. Drennan and McConnell (p.154) suggest that for crises that appear out of the blue, information which leaders want includes: how many casualties, what damage has been done, were the causes accidental, and is there a possibility of further threats? The key publics with whom one should communicate are the operations team, security team, the human recourse team and the finance team. These departments in a company are a holistic representation of the company. Any specific area touching one particular department can be handled with the expertise needed while the other departments provide any re-enforcement required. The common members of the crisis team are human resources, public relations, finance, legal, operations and security officials. External communications are vital for both operational and symbolic purposes during a crisis. Operationally, consistent external communications may enhance messages sent to front-line response teams who can be feeling isolated. Communications can inform the media and citizens of what, if anything, they should be doing to minimize the impact of the crisis (Dilenschneider 23). The specific channels of communication best for use to communicate these messages to your key publics are by means of a web site since it is an internet crisis being dealt with here. It has been recommended that companies create a separate web site exclusively for use in case of a crisis. Alternatively, the technical team can designate a section, for instance the updates section, of the current web site. This is done as part of the strategy of crisis preparedness. It therefore means that this, for instance, separate website should be existing before the crisis. This is the assumption that I am making here when I suggest the use of web site as the best channel of communicating the messages. The information in the web site is usually accessible by the public. This single element may be the only shortcoming of this channel though. Hence it cannot be applicable when the company does not want to publicize the crisis. However, since the strengths of using the same channel have a significant effect towards the crisis management, I still stick to its usefulness and preference. Web site is another means for an organization to present its side of the story and not using it creates a risk of losing how the crisis story is told. The use of intranets has also been recommended as one of the best channel of communication. Its advantage over the use of a website is that it limits access; this ensures confidentiality when dealing with the crisis. Intranets also enhance the targeted group’s response since it utilizes messaging system through emails or phones. In addition to considering the key publics, the specific messages and the specific channels of communication, it would also be important to consider relevant departments can quickly move to next stage, communicate to staff about creative response and plans, communicate to staff about personal devotion towards achievement, action containment plans and remind them that business will be back as usual. Whenever one is responding to a crisis communication (s)he should remember that everything is supposed to be done in time, with utmost accuracy, consistency, creativity and optimism. This concord with Coombs observation that the initial crisis response guidelines focus on three points:  be quick, be accurate, and be consistent (Coombs 4). The threatening nature of crises means that they must be addressed quickly. Someone said that many people fail to achieve since they spend nine minutes solving a problem that requires ten minutes solving. That is why consistency is important. Creativity is also important since every crisis is unique and has to be solved in its own unique way. Finally optimism drives one from the initial step of responding to a crisis to the moment the crisis is over. While flexibility of response is important, so is the need for clear structures and support mechanisms when managing a crisis (Drennan et all 18). In conclusion, since crisis is unpredictable preparedness is always important. But again, once bitten, twice shy. Dealing with a crisis too promotes awareness of how it is like to go challenge. The thought of going through it again is certainly not the best and therefore the parties involved do their best to prevent that by being prepared. Works Cited Coombs, W T, and Sherry J. Holladay. The Handbook of Crisis Communication. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print. Crisis Management: An International Overview. Hong Kong: Efficiency Unit, 2009. Print. Debatin, Bernhard, Jennette P. Lovejoy, Ann-Kathrin Horn, and Brittany N. Hughes. "Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 15.1 (2009): 83-108. Print. Dilenschneider, Robert L. The Corporate Communications Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Become a Public Relations Expert. Beverly Hills, Calif: New Millennium Press, 2000. Print. Drennan, Lynn T, and Allan McConnell. Risk and Crisis Management in the Public Sector. London: Routledge, 2007. Internet resource. Wilson, Laurie J, and Joseph D. Ogden. Strategic Communications Planning: For Effective Public Relations & Marketing. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Pub, 2008. Print. Read More