Yes, Crisis Communications Tornado Hunters, it's that time again. Force 2 WSJ scoop touches down on NASDAQ.
http://tinyurl.com/487qh37
Time to muse and critique the poor sods!
Well, first off, no surprises really. This is pure textbook.
Crisis Communications 101, Lesson 2: Don't kid yourself, you can't keep it contained.
Lesson 3: You can't communicate fast enough.
Lesson 4: State the facts as best you know them. Don't editorialize. Implications are not clear on short notice. Never speculate.
Lesson 5: Keep an open channel to the press, etc., for follow-ups and plan them.
I'm sure the comms gang at NASDAQ was cowed by the clowns at the US DOJ but it was a stupid move and NASDAQ was quick to share the cock-up loud and clear in their forced statement.
Hacking is a fact of life these days, and it's more of a corporate badge of honor to be the target of viral sneaks from Bulgaria or the bedrooms of nerdy teens in Nutley, NJ.
So I think NASDAQ will have to bulk up future communications with various anodyne security assurances, but this too shall pass and it will all blow over pretty quickly. Nothing was interrupted anyway, etc. Short/medium term it's going to be on every journalist's lips when they cover anything about the exchange. And it better not happen again or else it will be referred to as a "plague of security problems". In journalism, once is bad, twice is a "plague".
We also can assume that the security communities are going to want to wallow in all the pathological detail of this intrusion. We'll just wait for the whodunit and howdunit.
Meantime, it is a really stinky customer issue, and NASDAQ management will have to fall all over themselves and their Directors Desk product is going to have to go back to the shop for a few small repairs. They may have to go for a new, improved, hack-proof (ha ha) version, which thankfully they'll make more money on.
Kudos to the WSJ for blowing the lid. And for reminding all of us again of Crisis Communications 101 Lesson 1: Murphy's Law.
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