Client Results: PGP Corporation – Ponemon Cost of a Data Breach Reports (2007 – Present)
Security Practice case study
Overview
As data breaches continue to make headlines all over the world, PGP Corporation and the Ponemon Institute, one of the most well-known research organizations in the area of privacy, started a relationship in 2005 to develop a piece of research that could quantify how much data breaches were costing U.S. corporations. PGP Corporation saw this as a way to also further position the company and its spokespeople as thought-leaders in the IT security market.
The two organizations created the annual U.S. Cost of Data Breach Study (CODB), which tracks a wide range of cost factors, including expensive outlays for detection, escalation, notification and response along with legal, investigative and administrative expenses, customer defections, opportunity loss, reputation management, and costs associated with customer support such as information hotlines and credit monitoring subscriptions.
There have been five U.S. Reports and all have been derived from a detailed analysis of anywhere from 30-45 data breach cases with a range of 5,000 to 101,000 records that were affected. Companies analyzed were from 15 different industries. The Report is the only one of its kind and is now conducted in multiple countries including the UK, France, Germany and Australia. In April 2010, the first ever Global Report was produced that aggregated and analyzed data breach cost data from all five countries.
Strategy & Campaign
Merritt Group began its relationship with PGP Corporation as its U.S. PR agency of record in June 2007 and has handled promoting the past three U.S. CODB Reports plus the Global Report. For the first two Reports (2007 and 2008), Merritt Group executed a comprehensive media relations campaign designed to drive broad awareness for the Report findings and build PGP Corporation’s thought leadership in the security marketplace while driving ongoing awareness of the company’s data protection capabilities. Merritt aggressively executed on a multi-pronged strategy that centered around securing pre-briefings with target business, IT and security press/blog outlets. Outreach to bloggers was increased for the 2008 Report.
For the 2009 CODB Report, Merritt integrated social media campaigns into the overall strategy to help the client reach new channels and build more of a following for the Report. This included developing the client’s first social media release (SMR); recording a podcast with PGP’s CEO and the Report’s author, Larry Ponemon; implementing a Twitter campaign; and stepped-up Report outreach to the security/technology blogger community. The SMR was developed by Merritt Group’s Digital Services Practice to deliver the data in a more attractive format and include links to the podcast, support materials, other third party data and graphics for press/bloggers.
Results
On average, for each Report, Merritt secured 20 pre-briefings with business, IT trade and security publications/blogs. These embargoed interviews, conducted by Larry Ponemon and PGP CEO Phil Dunkelberger, were set up a few days before the Report went live so that coverage hit on the day of the announcement.
For the first Report that Merritt handled in 2007, the CODB Report received over 50 feature placements in strategic publications/sites such as Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, ZDNet, InformationWeek, eWEEK to name just a few.
With the Report’s growing momentum plus the integration of social media, the 2008 and 2009 Reports both surpassed all expectations with, on average, 200+ press/blog placements for each Report. In addition, the 2009 U.S. Report was referenced on Twitter on 250+ unique occasions. Press/blog coverage for the 2008/2009 Reports also includes the publications/sites mentioned above but also included Washington Post, Investor’s Business Daily, Network World, CNET, Computerworld, CSO Magazine, Consumer Reports, CRN, SC Magazine and others. The Global Report garnered coverage in business publications such as Forbes.com and San Francisco Chronicle and trade publications such as Network World, InformationWeek, eWEEK, IDG News and many more.
The Ponemon/PGP CODB Report has become one of the most recognized and anticipated pieces of data breach research in the market. Today, long after the latest Report has been released, PGP Corporation still continues to receive interest from press, industry organizations, researchers and universities who seek permission to reference the Report’s data points.
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