Communicating Under Pressure: Best Practices for Service Providers
CISA and FBI provide guidance on clear, timely, accurate, and audience-appropriate communications during IT and OT outages, emphasizing clarity, accountability, and transparency.
Intelligence analysis by Qwen 2.5 (3B)
CISA and FBI offer best practices for service providers to communicate effectively during IT and OT outages, focusing on clarity, accountability, and transparency.
This guide helps companies tell people when their internet goes out in a clear way that doesn't scare them and lets them know what's happening and what they can do.
Analysis
Background
CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and international partners developed this guidance to help organizations plan and execute clear, timely, accurate, and audience-appropriate communications during IT and OT outages. Outages can cause societal panic and require transparent communication to manage uncertainty and alarm.
Core Principles
The guidance emphasizes clarity, accountability, and transparency as core principles. It details key elements of effective crisis messaging, including:
- Clarity: Use clear and concise language to ensure messages are understood.
- Accountability: Be transparent about the cause of the outage and the steps being taken to resolve it.
- Transparency: Provide ongoing updates and be open about the situation.
Key Elements
The guidance outlines several key elements of effective crisis messaging, such as:
- Identifying the Audience: Tailor messages to the specific audience, whether it's end users, stakeholders, or the public.
- Clear and Concise Language: Use simple and straightforward language to ensure messages are understood.
- Ongoing Updates: Provide regular updates to keep the audience informed and reduce speculation.
- Legal Requirements and Operational Security: Ensure messages comply with legal requirements and protect operational security.
- Law Enforcement and Containment Efforts: Coordinate with law enforcement and containment efforts to manage the situation effectively.
Practical Considerations
For emergency planning purposes, critical infrastructure owners and operators should assume telecommunications services may be disrupted or unreliable. Organizations should have crisis communications plans in place that integrate backup communication methods and understand the type of communication they should expect from their service providers.
Conclusion
Effective communication during IT and OT outages is critical for maintaining trust and minimizing operational impact. This guidance provides best practices for service providers to ensure clear, timely, accurate, and audience-appropriate communications during outages, aligning with legal requirements, operational security, law enforcement, and containment efforts.
Key points
- CISA and FBI developed guidance for clear, timely, accurate, and audience-appropriate communications during IT and OT outages.
- The guidance emphasizes clarity, accountability, and transparency as core principles.
- Key elements include identifying the audience, using clear and concise language, providing ongoing updates, and coordinating with law enforcement and containment efforts.
- Organizations should have crisis communications plans in place that integrate backup communication methods.
- Assume telecommunications services may be disrupted or unreliable for emergency planning purposes.
If this guidance is followed, it can help prevent panic and confusion during outages, allowing people to continue their daily activities and trust the company's handling of the situation.
If the guidance is not followed, it could lead to increased panic and misinformation, causing more harm than the outage itself.
