BC Business
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Handling sensitive company information is a challenge, especially in the well-connected world of social media. Whether they occur in your laundry room or your company, leaks are a messy business. And when they strike, they can take months or even years of painstaking work with them down the drain. When it comes to keeping a secret, here’s how to build a solid plug and avoid being left covered in sludge. Be a little paranoid
Whether they occur in your laundry room or your company, leaks are a messy business. And when they strike, they can take months or even years of painstaking work with them down the drain. When it comes to keeping a secret, here’s how to build a solid plug and avoid being left covered in sludge.
When VANOC was getting ready to unleash Sumi, Quatchi and Miga (the 2010 Winter Games mascots), not a single hint leaked out. The organizing committee still won’t reveal how they did it, citing concerns about compromising future Games-related announcements, but officials have said they didn’t discuss details over cellphones, stored important files on Internet-disabled computers, and kept department meetings secret to the point of papering over windows. The lesson here? A small dose of paranoia goes a long way.
A key strategy when dealing with leaked information, says SFU marketing professor Lindsay Meredith, is what’s known as bulkheading. “Bulkheading means you establish an organization’s structure where only one person is allowed to talk to the media,” he explains. It’s like the wall in the hull of a ship: it stops a leak from spreading. “You don’t want to have a whole bunch of different areas of the corporation releasing information, because sure as hell something is going to come out to be slightly contradictory. And reporters are like bloodhounds. They’re hardwired to pick up inconsistencies, and if that happens you’ve got a problem.”
All companies with sensitive information should have their employees and partners sign confidentiality agreements, but shouldn’t rely on the same agreements that were used a couple of years ago. “A lot of companies are putting notes in those agreements about restrictions to things like Facebook and YouTube,” observes McConnell. “We’ve seen reports of how, in some cases, if employees are disgruntled, they use social-media sites to publicize their discontent.” For that matter, you may want to think about restricting access to such sites on all company computers – in addition to the encryption and firewall software you’ve got installed.
Much as it pains BCBusiness to say this, if the media come calling about leaked information regarding mergers or acquisitions, Erin McConnell, president of the Wilcox Group, advises refusing to comment. “There tends to be speculation on the street about potential mergers and acquisitions. Companies simply cannot comment on speculative information like that. They need to go to the media and say that they will not comment on speculation.”
When dealing with sensitive company information, think “covert cells.” Only those who need that information should have it. “A lot of companies have separate [computer] drives that have very restricted access limited to a very small number of people.” Meredith says. “If you’re Coca-Cola, your bottling plan is, ‘You don’t need to know what’s in the damn syrup. Just put it in the bottle with the soda water.’”