Crisis Communication in the Age of Cyber Threats: A Guide for Enterprises and Critical Infrastructure

What is crisis communication?

Crisis communication refers to the strategic protocols an organization follows to collaborate internally and externally during emergencies. A comprehensive incident response helps businesses share accurate information with key stakeholders quickly and securely to minimize negative impact, support decision making, and maintain trust.

Why Crisis Communication Matters More Than Ever

Modern enterprises now operate in hyper-connected, high-risk environments. They face a wide range of threats – extreme weather events, accidents, unethical actions, escalating geopolitical tensions, economic disruption, cyberattacks and data breaches.

A single vulnerability in a business ecosystem can lead to a full-blown disaster, impacting operations, damaging reputation, and resulting in hefty fines and penalties. Effectively managing these situations is critical for driving resilience and recovery.  As cyber threats increase and regulations evolve to keep pace, crisis communication is no longer just a Public Relations effort – it is a business-critical practice with board level visibility.

Many new regulations focus on emergency response plans and processes. The NIS 2 Directive for example, requires documented, auditable records of communication during security incidents. Incident response and discussions are almost as important as action taken to mitigate a challenging situation; and safe, time-efficient communication strategies must be an integral part of crisis communication plans.

Join Wire on           

FOLLOW US

The 5 Essential Components of a Crisis Communication Plan

A good incident response plan must be detailed and cover all possible contingencies:

1. Risk assessment and mitigation plan – Identify the key risks facing your business, rank them in order of priority, and prepare a plan of action for each one.
2. Define roles, responsibilities – A cross-functional incident response team should be ready to take charge as soon as the emergency occurs. Identify the team members, assign roles and responsibilities, establish a chain of command and communication protocols. Train each member of the team on what they must do to address a challenging situation
3. Secure communications channels –Your team must be able to talk with each other, share confidential documents and information without any risks, leaks, or hacks. You have to set up protected communication channels that include group chats, broadcast systems. A platform that is built to be secure with end-to-end encryption and zero trust architecture is essential for ensuring safe, timely, and seamless exchange of information.
4. Real time information flow – Every second is crucial in a crisis. The core team should be able to discuss developments and next steps amongst themselves, and they must be able to share verified information with stakeholders in near real time.  
5. Post-crisis audit and document records – Crisis management is not a one-time activity; it is an ongoing learning experience. Teams should conduct a detailed debrief and analysis of the response effort and identify areas of improvement. They also have to retain communication logs and records for audit and regulatory compliance.

Crisis Communication in a Cybersecurity Context

On an average the world has to deal with 600 million cyberattacks a day and the average cost of a data breach is USD 4.5 million. Interestingly, in 2024, 95 percent of cyber breaches were caused by human error. An emergency can develop in a matter of seconds, cripple enterprise systems and cause significant damage. Swift, and protected communication is essential at times like these. But how safe are the channels themselves? Two recent incidents showed the world just how fragile corporate security measures can be:

1. In October 2024, China hacked telecommunications providers like Verizon and AT&T across the US to access national security data as well as sensitive information of US political leaders. Hackers exploited vulnerabilities in the information security infrastructure and the government’s backdoor portals to carry out this attack.
2. In March 2025,  high ranking officials within the Trump administration added a journalist to an inadequately protected consumer messaging app group where they discussed highly confidential military plans. In the wrong hands, this could have had disastrous consequences.

Consumer messaging apps, and even business collaboration channels are not fully encrypted, and their security architectures are fundamentally weak. Add insider threat to the mix and you have a significant challenge to address.

Companies need a secure communication platform for reliable and seamless information sharing during cybersecurity incidents. Here are three key features to look for: 

• Fallback communication: Out-of-band, fallback platforms are crucial to ensure continuous collaboration and interaction during emergencies. It should be able to operate independent of corporate servers and mobile servers. This is important for safeguarding all data on the platform even if the networks are compromised.  It must support real time and asynchronous messaging, allow teams to set up private groups, ensure all data and documents shared remain safe and accessible only to relevant people.
• End-to-end encryption: Sensitive information in the wrong hands can make a crisis worse. Your platform should encrypt every activity – text messaging, audio / video calls, documents and files shared, group chats and more. And it must encrypt data both in transit and at rest. This ensures that all communication is shielded even if the platform is hacked.
• Role based access: Encryption is only one part of the security strategy. A crisis communication platform must also work on a zero trust zero knowledge architecture where no one and nothing is automatically trusted. It must facilitate role-based access to chats, calls, call logs, and files shared. It should also continuously verify users to ensure that all information remains secure even if hackers manage to access it.

Compliance, Risk & the Role of Regulation

The European Union’s Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS2 Directive) came into effect in October 2024. It applies to industries deemed “essential” or “important” like energy, healthcare, transport, and digital infrastructure. Organizations within these industries that fall into the following categories have to comply with NIS2 Directive:

• Large businesses with a minimum of 250 employees or an annual turnover of €50 million or more
• Medium size companies with 50+ employees or an annual turnover and balance sheet total of €10 million or more

Non-compliance can result in fines up to 2 percent of global turnover or €10 million whichever is higher.

NIS2 Directive focuses on four key areas:

1. Risk Management: Enterprises have to take steps to minimize cyber risks such as incident management, stronger supply chain and network security, better access control, and encryption
2. Corporate Accountability: Management and board members need to supervise, approve and be trained on the company’s cybersecurity strategy. They can be penalized in the event of breaches
3. Business Continuity: Resilience and continuity are an important component of this Directive and organizations must have a business continuity plan for recovery after a major incident
4. Reporting: Significant incidents and an assessment of their impact must be reported within specified timelines

NIS2 crisis communication requirements:

The NIS2 Directive makes crisis communication a compliance obligation by mandating verifiable records of incident response communication during a crisis. It also emphasizes the board’s direct involvement in managing information security. Failure to do so can result in penalties, reputational damage, and audit findings. Organizations must bolster their cybersecurity posture and also implement a comprehensive strategy with a fully encrypted crisis communication platform.

Know more about NIS2 compliance support

Choosing the Right Platform for Crisis-Ready Communication

As the SignalGate scandal showed, the use of consumer messaging apps for mission critical communication can have serious consequences. Unfortunately even enterprise communications apps like Slack or MS Teams are not fully secure. Disney lost over 1TB of sensitive data due to Slack vulnerabilities while Microsoft Teams has several security blind spots.

Your secure communication platform should have the following features:

End-to-end encryption: This means that data is encrypted on the sender’s device, and is decrypted only once it reaches the intended recipient. In other words, data cannot be decrypted and accessed by any other parties- including hackers, service providers, and even governments- while its in transit or when it’s at rest.  Wire fully encrypts all files, videos, calls, text messages, conferences, and group discussions so that only intended, authorized personnel can access them. We use the Proteus Protocol to safeguard every message with a unique key.  We also use a Messaging Layer Security (MLS) Protocol that extends encrypted security to group communications.

Zero-Trust and Zero-Knowledge Architecture: Wire’s ensures role-based access to chats, calls, call logs, and files shared. It also continuously verifies users to ensures that all information on the platform remains secure even if it is hacked. 

Offline-capable fallback modes: What happens if a hack disrupts network connectivity, or if service providers themselves experience a malicious attack? Crisis communication platforms must have fallback modes that allow you to continue collaborating and connecting in real time as well as asynchronously. Wire's out-of-band communication allows it to work independent of corporate services or mobile networks that may be compromised. You can continue to collaborate and coordinate on our platform without worrying about reliability or breaches. 

Usability: Governments and corporates resort to using consumer grade messaging apps for mission critical communication because these tools are easy to use. Enterprise grade secure communications platforms must also be user friendly so teams don’t switch to unofficial apps. Wire’s intuitive interface and configurable options like closed user groups allows you to easily adapt to it and use it effectively for incident response management. 

Compliance reporting and data retention features: Auditable records of crisis communication are now a regulatory requirement. Wire stores detailed logs of all incident management discussions and files which can be easily retrieved for compliance purposes. 

Here is how Wire compares to other corporate communications channels : 

Conclusion: The Future of Crisis Communication is Secure, Compliant, and Always-On

Effective management of crises is no longer optional – it is essential for operational resilience, and regulatory compliance. As the risk landscape continues to evolve, businesses can no longer rely on legacy channels, or use unsecure consumer grade tools to coordinate their response. Wire is designed for security and built for reliability during high-stakes situations, helping drive timely dissemination of information to build trust and protect corporate reputation.

Ensure your organization is fully prepared for the next crisis with a secure, reliable, and compliant communication platform.

Crisis Communication FAQs