There’s a saying in the national security business, that you must build trust before you need it. The type of adversarial situations that we have faced throughout our careers have required us knowing whom to trust for timely understanding of ground truth. Having built trusted relationships with the right people in the right places in advance of an incident has meant the difference between life and death. Trust is the coin of the realm when defending queen and country. This same trust requirement is proving true in corporate security around the world today. As corporations spend lifetimes building their reputations, they cannot afford to allow preventable security incidents to destroy it. This trust truism is why board rooms around the world are now focusing on reputational security as a critical component of their business plans.
Board rooms are fast filling with members and committees that understand that risk to corporate reputation is as important as every other aspect of the bottom line. Critical questions are being asked of CEOs and CISOs about what is now possible in the area of reputational defense, and what the company is doing to protect itself. Today’s realities have presented bad actors with the incentive and opportunity to increase their focus on reputational crimes and, given the ever-increasing sophistication of threats and enterprise reliance on technology, business must adapt.