CRISIS MANAGER
The Internet Newsletter about Crisis Management
Editor: Erik Bernstein Publisher: Jonathan Bernstein

"For Those Who Are Crisis Managers,
Whether They Want to be or Not"

ISSN:1528-3836
� 2015 Jonathan Bernstein

MLB's #Hackgate and the Future of Corporate Espionage

Volume XVI, Number 10

June 19, 2015

Just a Thought

"Hackers are breaking the systems for profit. Before, it was about intellectual curiosity and pursuit of knowledge and thrill, and now hacking is big business."

- Kevin Mitnick

From the Editor

Corporate espionage is nothing new. Although these days attacks typically come from out-of-country and focus on acquiring items like technological secrets or customer data, the increased availability of simple hacking tools and hackers-for-hire, along with the sheer value of information, means it's happening within the U.S. as well.

Case in point - the alleged hacking of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros by member(s) of the St. Louis Cardinals staff. While at first glance a baseball team's secret data may not seem particularly valuable, the type of "moneyball" style long-term analysis, heavy number crunching, and proprietary algorithms involved cost serious bucks to put together. Done right, it can result in massive changes in team performance, a factor that translates directly into cash.

In our blog post on the matter we reported investigators' belief that Astros GM Jeff Luhnow, formerly a Cardinals employee, continued to use at least some of the same passwords when he moved to his new position, allowing someone to easily access Astros systems. As of this yesterday Luhnow is vehemently denying this, citing his long experience in both baseball and high tech industries as proof he knows how important password security is.

We regularly discuss the need to prepare for being hacked yourself, but this case brought to light another aspect that should be mentioned more often. Namely, that your staff should be educated on the negative consequences of attempting, or succeeding in, hacking someone themselves. They may think they're helping - the Cardinals employees responsible certainly must have - but it needs to be made abundantly clear that any advantage gained will quickly be canceled out by the fallout when the intrusion is discovered.

- Erik

Interested in reprinting BCM articles or blog posts?

We're happy to give permission for material to be reprinted in hard copy or online!

If you find something you would like to reprint, simply submit a request to jonathan@bernsteincrisismanagement.com.

Blogs!

Our blogs on the Bernstein Crisis Management page and at the Free Management Library cover topics ranging from reputation management, to social media, to crisis management case studies and more.

In this section we take look at some of the most popular posts from recent weeks:

Information-related crisis management isn't cheap, and it gets exponentially more expensive to handle depending on how prepared you are beforehand. Here are some Hard Stats on The Cost of Information Crises.

Air bag manufacturer Takata was dragging its feet on much-needed recalls until the DoT stepped in. DoT Forces Takata's Recall Into the Fast Lane looks at how this changes the situation, and its effect on Takata's reputation.

One of the most overlooked ways to head of crises before they start is to improve your customer service. We firmly believe Customer Service Matters for Crisis Management.

Austin City Managers Take a Trip Back in Time looks at the strangely dated decision to send city staff to special training to "learn" how to communicate with its newly elected majority female city council.

Regardless of what your organization does, one of its goals should be Improving Reputation Every Day.

We examine the rapid movement of negative news across borders, language barriers, and other obstacles in Crises Crossing Borders in the Digital Age.

You don't need computer skills of your own to hack a target any longer. Crisis Management Risk: Hackers for Hire inspects the emerging trend of paying anonymous hackers to do your dirty work online.

Do you have a topic you'd like to see featured in our blogs? Send an email to erik@bernsteincrisismanagement.com and there's a good chance you'll be seeing it right here in the next issue!

Apropos of Nothing

Make Some Easy Money

Bernstein Crisis Management pays VERY generous referral commissions, a nice chunk of the first year's business from any referred client.

Avoid The Apology

Clueless advertising folks at Anheuser-Busch eliciting widespread anger with a Bud Lite commercial featuring the tagline "The perfect beer for removing 'no' from your vocabulary for the night";

Sea World launching its disastrous #askseaworld campaign, not thinking through how that hashtag could be comically and sadly hijacked;

Starbucks kicking off - and then aborting - its ill-considered "Race Together" campaign; or,

Trevor Noah, Jon Stewart's hand-picked replacement on "The Daily Show," coming under fierce online criticism for anti-Semitic and otherwise insensitive tweets.

So many of the damaging crises we see making headlines and creating costs every day could have been prevented if someone first asked, "What the (expletive deleted) could go wrong with this idea?" That's the premise behind Bernstein Crisis Management's AvoidTheApology.com.

To learn more, email erik@bernsteincrisismanagement.com.

Bernsteins Available to Deliver Free Guest Lectures, Q&A Sessions

Jonathan alone, or the team of Jonathan and Erik Bernstein, are available at no charge to deliver guest lectures and host Q&A sessions with college classes via Skype or Google Hangout.

For our latest presentation we had the pleasure of speaking with Fred Muir's crisis communications class at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

The lectures are fun for us and students, and we're more than happy to allow recording for your future use. All you need at your end is a single computer with webcam and a strong broadband connection for us to appear in your classroom in real-time.

Attention Corporate Boards of Directors (and those who serve them).

If you're connected with a corporate board of directors in some way and think that board would benefit from having a veteran crisis management pro amongst its membership, please contact me. -- Jonathan

Business Announcements

(aka blatant self-promotion)

Preparing Candidates for C-Suite Interviews

In 2014, a client familiar with Jonathan Bernstein's media training techniques suggested that the same methods would help her husband, a candidate for a C-Suite position at several companies, be better focused and prepared for his interviews. She was right and, as he moved through the interview process, the candidate received a number of one-hour trianing sessions by Jonathan, via webcam. That candidate is now the CFO of a $23 billion company and is available as a confidential reference.

Jonathan Bernstein is available to provide the same training to others, write jonathan@bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Are Your Social Media Managers Crisis Trained?

A solid social media manager has quickly become a must-have for organizations of any size, and can make an immense difference by driving in customers and building your positive reputation online.

The problem is, the vast majority are simply not equipped to even identify building crises, much less take the steps necessary to cope with and mitigate the damage that can result.

That's where we come in.

Bernstein Crisis Management is now offering crisis management training for social media managers, both independent and in-house, as well as social media firms.

For an overview of our services, estimates, or more information, contact erik@bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Traditional Social Media Training

Want to get your feet wet with social media but don't know where to start? Maybe you have accounts, but aren't sure what to post, or how to reply?

Being active on social media is a must these days, but you have to do it right. Erik Bernstein now offers social media training sessions in person or via Skype for groups and individuals.

For questions or pricing info, please email erik@bernsteincrisismanagement.com

Expanded Crisis Manager Bookstore

We've recently expanded the Crisis Manager Bookstore to include offerings from esteemed colleagues like Melissa Agnes, Gerald Baron, Chris Syme and Jim Lukaszewski that cover topics from crisis communication and traditional PR to social media and cutting-edge crisis management. We'll be adding other authors we admire in the weeks ahead.

Visit the new Crisis Manager Bookstore to see all of the material available now!

Keeping the Wolves at Bay: Media Training

Learn how to deal with traditional or social media during a crisis in this educational and entertaining guide from

Crisis Manager publisher Jonathan Bernstein.

$25 for hard copy, $10 for PDF.

Head to the Crisis Manager Bookstore for more information and/or to purchase.

Manager's Guide to Crisis Management

Whether you're a seasoned manager, aspiring up-and-comer, or student of crisis management, Jonathan Bernstein's textbook,Manager's Guide to Crisis Management will put you in control of any situation.

Guest Authors

Guest authors are very welcome to submit material for "Crisis Manager." There is no fee paid, but most guest authors have reported receiving business inquiries as a result of appearing in this publication. Case histories, experience-based lessons, commentary on current news events and editorial opinion are all eligible for consideration. Submission is not a guarantee of acceptance.

About Us

Jonathan Bernstein is both publisher of Crisis Manager and president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., a national crisis management public relations agency providing 24/7 access to crisis response professionals. The agency engages in the full spectrum of crisis management services: crisis prevention, response, planning & training. He has been in the public relations field since 1982, following five-year stints in both military intelligence and investigative reporting.

Write to Jonathan at: jonathan@bernsteincrisismanagement.com.

Erik Bernstein is vice president of Bernstein Crisis Management. Erik started with BCM in 2009 as a writer and subsequently became social media manager for the consultancy itself as well as for a number of BCM clients before moving to the VP position.

Write to Erik at: erik@bernsteincrisismanagement.com.

Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. is located at 700 S. Myrtle Ave., #404, Monrovia, CA 91016. Telephone: (626) 825-3838.

Legal Disclaimer (aka the small print)

All information contained herein is obtained by Jonathan Bernstein from sources believed by Jonathan Bernstein to be accurate and reliable.

Because of the possibility of human and mechanical error as well as other factors, neither Jonathan Bernstein nor Bernstein Crisis Management is responsible for any errors or omissions. All information is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Bernstein Crisis Management and Jonathan Bernstein make no representations and disclaim all express, implied, and statutory warranties of any kind to the user and/or any third party including, without limitation, warranties as to accuracy, timeliness, completeness, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose.

Unless due to willful tortuous misconduct or gross negligence, Jonathan Bernstein and Bernstein Crisis Management shall have no liability in tort, contract, or otherwise (and as permitted by law, product liability), to the user and/or any third party.

Under no circumstance shall Bernstein Crisis Management or Jonathan Bernstein be liable to the user and/or any third party for any lost profits or lost opportunity, indirect, special, consequential, incidental, or punitive damages whatsoever, even if Bernstein Crisis Management or Jonathan Bernstein has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

A service of this newsletter is to provide news summaries and/or snippets to readers. In such instances articles and/or snippets will be reprinted as they are received from the originating party or as they are displayed on the originating website or in the original article. As we do not write the news, we merely point readers to it, under no circumstance shall Bernstein Crisis Management or Jonathan Bernstein be liable to the user and/or any third party for any lost profits or lost opportunity, indirect, special, consequential, incidental, or punitive damages whatsoever due to the distribution of said news articles or snippets that lead readers to a full article on a news service's website, even if Bernstein Crisis Management or Jonathan Bernstein has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Authors of the original news story and their publications shall be exclusively held liable. Any corrections to news stories are not mandatory and shall be printed at the discretion of the list moderator after evaluation on a case-by-case basis.

In This Issue

Blogs!

Quick Links