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When it comes to cybersecurity, when you prepare for failure, you plan for success. Kaseya’s Senior Vice President of Security Services Mark Geary aims to help people understand that when cyber incidents happen, how your organization communicates it is just as important as what your organization does to fix it.
“Communication matters and is everything in a compromise because it is how you face your business and how you face the world,” Mark says. “Proper communication reduces confusion and preserves trust with your employees and customers.”
At the third annual TECHLeadership Conference in October 2025, Mark explained in his breakout session “Crisis Clarity: Mastering Communications During a Cybersecurity Incident” how to identify people that need to be informed, how to navigate cyber incident communication, how to prepare for the future, and real-world examples to learn from.
Identify communication roles
According to Mark, the chain of command largely dictates how well or poorly an organization handles a cyber crisis. Technical teams provide the facts, leadership handles external communication, and sales teams respond to customers with prepared, consistent messages. Without clear roles, a single untrained voice can create unnecessary distrust.
In an ideal incident response plan, every employee should know what the next course of action should be and how to communicate it to customers effectively. Plans with transparency and consistency will help earn back the confidence of customers.
Response strategy
Mark stressed the importance of having an incident response plan for every organization to be more secure and communicate better internally and externally. Every business should be preparing for threats and identifying them before data breaches occur and should continue to do so afterwards.
After a cyber incident, Mark said documentation is crucial for preparing for the future. Whether that means adding data to templates or creating extended reports on the incident, documentation gives businesses more information to test vulnerabilities and prevent repeat occurrences.
Prepare your defenses
Organizations can also plan for the future in ways other than trying to keep cyber criminals from getting into their network. Limiting internal access to sensitive data, segmenting networks, and aligning access with job roles all reduce the impact of a compromise.
“Those who don’t need access to that data, don’t get access. Not everybody needs to see everything in the organization,” Mark explains. “If you’re finance, or if you’re administration, there’s probably data that you should see that nobody else should see.”
Maintain cyber resilience
Cyber incidents may be inevitable, but how you respond makes all the difference. Organizations that plan ahead and communicate clearly recover faster and maintain trust, Mark says. Cyber incidents will happen, but organizations that prepare, test their response, and communicate with intention are better positioned to stay resilient.
Request access watch Mark’s breakout session to hear his in-depth guidance on preparing for and communicating through the worst-case scenarios.
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