Why leaks, accidental or otherwise, need to be covered in your crisis management plans
Last week, the Daily Dot reported that a UK police department had utilized legislation aimed at preventing terrorism to snoop on journalists. The department was found out after accidentally releasing the documents, a mistake that should have its leadership scrambling to implement more stringent crisis management protocol.
The Cleveland Police “erroneously” sent information to industry paper
the Press Gazette indicating that it had used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to obtain telecoms data while searching for a journalist’s source, the the Press Gazette reports—and asked the publication to delete the documents when they realized what they had done.
Press Gazette has refused to do so, arguing that “there is a strong public interest in disclosing it.”
Many organizations encounter serious problems as a result of leaks, both accidental and on purpose, and the people reporting on them have no obligation to help you plug things up. The best way to deal with leaks is a two-pronged approach that educates and informs employees on how to prevent leaks, and the dangers they pose to their employer (and thus their own jobs), while being prepared to mitigate the damage that comes when information does fall into the wrong hands – and no, telling those who published the info they “must” remove it is not a legitimate crisis management plan.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com