We had a great discussion today on a panel at the International Cyber Risk Management Conference.

The theme was Driving Resilience.

Resilience means toughness and the capacity to recover quickly from challenges and crises. Solid and strategic communications enable a company to be resilient in times of crisis. In fact, the companies that have been the most resilient have planned and put their teams’ through the paces including drills and simulation sessions. Just like a hockey team doesn’t wait until game seven of the playoffs to start playing together, an organization needs to build its muscles and identify the gaps, get everyone working together and train. So if an incident happens, the response is coordinated, transparent and consistent.

One of the things that struck me was that my voice was a fairly lone one at the conference. Cyber risk consultants, IT directors, and designers, IT security, insurance people—they were all there. Crisis communications professionals—not so many. And that played to the point that I wanted to make. Technology fixes and solutions and risk analysis are just one part of resilience. A company-wide communications strategy is also essential—and it needs to integrate with the work that everyone else is doing.