Cyber Breach Most Feared Company Crisis, Ahead Of Sexual Harassment & Violence

The type of incident most commonly addressed by company crisis management plans is a cyber breach, according to a survey by Morrison & Foerster and the Ethisphere Institute. It was cited as the number one concern by more than two-thirds of respondents. The next most common concern was violence or sexual harassment events, which were consolidated by the survey into a single category. Significantly farther down the list was a major preoccupation from previous decades, environmental damage, followed by government investigations, intellectual property theft and terrorism, in that order. About 20 percent of respondents said their company had no crisis management plan at all. The survey also found most companies that do have a crisis management plan aren’t confident it will work, but companies that conduct crisis drills are more confident than others.