It’s the situation that many blockchain-based businesses dread but, sadly, one that is not entirely unusual. Operating in a profitable sector means that hackers and other such criminals will try to compromise your social media, and if it does happen, you will need to act fast. Knowing how to respond in the face of a social media compromise is a key part of blockchain crisis PR.
In this article, we’ll touch on some of the things to do as soon as the hack occurs, in the days after, and in the long term.
Blockchain Crisis PR: How to Respond to Social Media Hack
1. Identify the Hack
The first thing you want to do is identify the extent of the hack. This will require liaising with your social media team, but find out what exact accounts have been compromised and when this happened. Was your Twitter/X account hacked in the morning, or were all of your social media accounts compromised? It is not unusual for attackers to launch simultaneous hacks of multiple social media platforms, so it is best to know which have been affected and which have not.
Once you know when the attack took place, you can narrow down the point at which it became vulnerable, and this can help you prevent future attacks. Knowing which platforms have been affected also lets you know which are still safe to use for now and the best way to communicate with your audience.
2. Secure Other Accounts
Once you know the social media accounts that haven’t been compromised, you need to go and secure them. If your Twitter/X account has been hacked, but your Instagram appears safe, immediately log into it and change the password. The last thing you want is to deal with multiple social media accounts being hacked at the same time.
You also want to make sure attackers cannot use the compromised accounts to access others. For example, an Instagram account can cross-post to Facebook as well, and this would spread the effect of the hack. What’s more, you want to make sure that the login details used to hack into one account cannot be used for other things like your email and so on.
3. Alert Your Security Team
Because the implications of even a single hack are so wide, you need to make sure that you are working with the professionals. Have your cybersecurity team alerted of this hack and allow them to handle the more technical parts of it.
You can also alert law enforcement, as they are making more efforts these days to track down and prosecute crypto-related crime. Having these professionals at your side means that the hack can be resolved faster, and the effects of it can be mitigated.
4. Put Out a Statement
When dealing with any sort of blockchain-related hack, the last thing you want is to keep your customers in the dark. A quick look at news reporting whenever a major project has been hacked in any way will show customers frazzled and confused about what to do next.
If you can identify at least one of your social media platforms that hasn’t been hacked, you want to put out a statement immediately. Send emails to every customer you have, letting them know which account has been compromised and instructing them not to trust the information being put out on these accounts.
Do the same with the uncompromised social media and emphasize that they could have their data, funds, or both stolen if they engage with the compromised account. Once the hack has been resolved, put out another statement letting them know that it is safe to engage with the account. At every given point, make sure your customers know that you are on top of the situation and are not leaving them in the dark.
5. Explain Measures to Your Customers
While you cannot stop hackers from trying to target your social media platforms and your customers, you can prepare your customers in the event that this happens. A good idea would be to put out educational material explaining to your customers the best ways to spot a hacked or compromised account.
For example, you can make it clear that you will never airdrop tokens to anyone without prior announcement. A common tactic from hackers is telling people to click links for free tokens. But if your customers know that you would never distribute free tokens this way, they are less likely to believe. Beyond earning you good will, this could be an avenue for a content series, including videos, blog posts, and so on.
6. Restitute if Possible
The worst-case scenario of a blockchain social media hack is that some customers might lose money or information by engaging with the hackers. While this is not always feasible and depends on the scale of the attack, you could offer some level of restitution to your customers.
If ten people clicked on the dodgy link and lost a combined $10,000, for example, you could offer to reimburse them as a goodwill gesture. This should be publicized as much as possible as it shows that you care about your audience and are willing to help them recover if they lost money via your compromised account. Before doing this, speak to your company accountant to determine how financially feasible this would be.
Conclsuion
One of the worst types of Blockchain Crisis PR is having your social media accounts hacked. Criminals often do this to spread false information or trick customers into handing over their money under the guise of engaging with a legitimate business. As much as we don’t want this to happen, even the biggest companies in the space have faced this.
It is best to have a contingency plan for if this happens, including securing accounts, communication with your audience at all points, having professionals handle the technical stuff, and offering compensation if this is possible. With this plan in place, your company can come out with positive PR, even in the face of a hack.