No One Is Safe

One urgent concern for PR practitioners is computer security.  It seems anyone with a tad of recognition is being hacked.  Colin Powell, Olympic athletes, the Democratic Party and on have all been invaded and their jewels of information released to the public.  A question PR practitioners should be asking clients is whether they have anything in e-mail or on their computers that could compromise them.  If so, PR needs to put into place a crisis plan against the day that the data is released by a hacker.  The practitioner also needs to get the information off of the system if possible.  There is little security in changing passwords, even if the words are difficult to decipher.  Hackers use human engineering to trick people into giving away their protection.  Look for more information releases in the future and more PR crises.  It will take time to get ahead of hackers and the only way to do so is through strict computer discipline.  Never write what you don’t want the world to see.