Cyber crisis management: a decision-support framework for disclosing security incident information

The growing sophistication and frequency of cyber attacks force modern companies to be prepared beforehand for potential cyber security incidents and data leaks. A proper incident disclosure strategy can significantly improve timeliness and effectiveness of incident response activities, reduce legal fines, and restore confidence and trust of a company's key stakeholders. In this paper, four factors that shape organizational preferences regarding incident information disclosure are introduced. Together, they create a set of challenges for a company when deciding to whom, when, what, and how to share cyber security incident information. We further propose a decision-support framework that provides step-by-step guidance for organizations to address these challenges, and develop an appropriate incident disclosure strategy.