Analysis of 47 public-company cyber breach disclosures under SEC's Form 8-K reveals that stock recovery correlates more strongly with disclosure clarity than incident severity. Clear, specific disclosures lead to faster recovery.
The SEC's four-day disclosure window for material cyber incidents requires a disciplined, pre-planned response. This is the hour-by-hour playbook for the 96-hour cycle, from materiality determination to filing.
Due to new SEC rules and legal precedents, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are now public-facing spokespeople, yet most lack the required media and regulatory communication training.
AI-assisted attacks have compressed cyber incident timelines from days to hours, breaking traditional crisis communication playbooks. A new, pre-built playbook is needed to handle the speed and the SEC's 96-hour clock.
Cyber insurance underwriters now scrutinize a company's crisis communications readiness, including playbooks and media training. Documented comms readiness can lower premiums by 12-22%.
Under SEC Item 1.05, determining if a cyber incident is 'material' requires input on reputational risk from the communications team, yet most are untrained for this legally consequential judgment.