At RSAC, coronavirus was on everyone’s mind, but it was just one story out of the show. There was also news about election hacking, nation state attacks, and IoT vulnerabilities.
Now COVID-19 has eclipsed all other stories. But the media is still looking for helpful information and expertise from cybersecurity experts.
What are reporters focused on and what’s resonating?
TOP CYBERSECURITY STORIES AROUND CORONAVIRUS IN MARCH
Based on data in Spike NewsWhip, these were the top stories by total interactions:
- U.S. Health Agency Suffers Cyber-Attack During COVID-19 Response — Bloomberg — 37.6K interactions
- These are the workers the U.S. government deems ‘essential’ amid the coronavirus pandemic — Fortune — 28.6K interactions
- Cyberattack hits Department of Health and Human Services, report says — Fox News — 27.3K interactions
- Hackers are using these fake coronavirus maps to give people malware — Business Insider — 19.1K interactions
- Hackers attacked a U.S. health agency’s computer system in an attempt to slow down its COVID-19 response — Business Insider — 17K interactions
- COVID-19 Vaccine Test Center Hit By Cyber Attack, Stolen Data Posted Online — Forbes — 15.9K interactions
- Key U.S. Health Agency Suffers Cyberattack During Coronavirus Response — Yahoo! News — 13.7K interactions
- New York Attorney General Looks Into Zoom’s Privacy Practices — New York Times — 13K interactions
TOP CYBERSECURITY STORIES LAST WEEK
Last week, there were 597 total articles about coronavirus and cybersecurity, with 81,849 total interactions, according to Spike NewsWhip. These are the top 5 stories by engagement:
- Coronavirus pandemic exposes urgent need for programmers of a very old computer language — Mashable — 16.9K interactions
- Taiwan Bans Official Use of Zoom Over Cybersecurity Concerns — Bloomberg — 12.9K interactions
- Stolen Zoom passwords and meeting IDs are already being shared on the dark web — Mashable — 9.9K interactions
- ‘Think twice’ before using Zoom for confidential conversations, experts warn — CTV News — 5.8K interactions
- Google’s sharing Canadians’ location data with the government, but says privacy’s assured — CTV News — 3.9K interactions
CYBERSECURITY STORIES THE MEDIA IS FOCUSING ON
Looking at the articles with the most interactions, these are some common themes the media have been covering:
- Attacks/breaches in government health agencies and healthcare
- Work from home risks and vulnerabilities
- Phishing/malware attacks
- Consumer privacy
- 5G and bandwidth
- Scams and dark web insights
- The aftermath of COVID-19: Threats businesses should prepare for
HOW TO APPROACH PR DURING THE PANDEMIC
The news changes hour by hour. Stories that are relevant today might not be tomorrow. You need to switch up your approach accordingly.
- Avoid the hour-by-hour play by play and try to speak to more macro, evergreen changes or trends — what wouldn’t have been done before that’s now being done?
- Draw historical comparisons to the impacts of other events and how this environment compares
- Look ahead to what happens when life returns to the new normal — what will be the same and what will change?
- Approach the topic at the high level a book author would. There’s less competition up there.
Next steps: You don’t need to be opportunistic. Be smart. Be helpful. Give reporters and your audiences useful information that will help them right now. Investment in cybersecurity hasn’t slowed down. Raising your profile, as long as you’re doing it conscientiously, is still important.