A strategic guide for executive leadership during their organization’s most critical hours
The phone rings on a Friday at 2:47 AM. Your CISO’s voice cuts through the silence: “We have a situation.” In that moment, every decision your C-suite makes will reverberate through your organization for years. The difference between companies that emerge stronger from a cyber incident and those that crumble often comes down to one thing: having a tested incident response plan when chaos reigns.
The First Hour: Clarity Through Structure
When adrenaline surges and technical teams scramble, executives need a structured approach. The most successful crisis responses I have witnessed follow what I call the REACT Framework:
- Recognize the scope and severity
- Establish command structure
- Assess legal and regulatory obligations
- Communicate with precision
- Take immediate protective action
This framework serves as more than just another acronym—it’s a mental model that prevents the two most dangerous executive behaviors during a crisis: paralysis and premature action.
The Scope Assessment Challenge
Many C-suite members make a critical error in the first hours: they either catastrophize a minor network intrusion or underestimate a major security incident. Success depends on establishing clear escalation criteria before crisis strikes.
Ask these three questions immediately:
- What data categories are potentially compromised?
- How many individuals could be affected in the worst case scenario?
- What regulatory notification timelines are we facing?
The answers to the above questions determine whether you’re managing a contained incident or preparing for a congressional testimony.
Command Structure: Decisive Leadership Under Pressure
Collaborative decision-making serves organizations well during normal operations. During a cyber crisis, committees become liabilities. Designate a single Crisis Commander within your C-suite—typically the CEO or COO—who has ultimate authority over all crisis-related decisions. Everyone else, including other C-suite members, reports through this structure.
This approach prioritizes speed and accountability over consensus. I have witnessed too many organizations paralyzed by competing voices when they needed decisive action the most.
The Legal Balance
Here’s where many executives stumble: they either ignore legal counsel entirely in their rush to “fix things,” or become so overwhelmed by legal considerations that they fail to protect their business interests.
The reality requires balance between the two. Yes, you need legal guidance on privilege protection, notification requirements, and regulatory compliance. However, legal risk represents just one factor in your decision matrix. Sometimes the legally safest path proves business-damaging.
Work with your incident response counsel to understand your options, NOT to delegate your decision-making authority.
Communication: The Reputation-Defining Moment
Your crisis communication strategy will shape your organization’s reputation for the next decade. The cardinal rule: never communicate until you can answer these four questions with confidence:
- What happened?
- What are we doing about it?
- How are we protecting those affected?
- How are we preventing future incidents?
Half-truths and premature statements create more damage than temporary silence. However, in our connected digital age, prolonged silence becomes the story itself. Again, balance.
Taking Protective Action: First Steps Matter
Your immediate priority must be containing the incident and protecting your organization. This means implementing emergency response protocols, securing compromised systems, and mobilizing your incident response team. You need to address this step before you can even start to think about recovery and restoration.
Containment as a first step demonstrates leadership and can significantly limit the scope of damage. I have seen organizations minimize the impact of a security incident by hours or even days through a decisive containment.
Beyond the Framework: Building Resilient Leadership
The best C-suite teams don’t merely survive crises—they leverage them as catalysts for organizational improvement. This requires a mindset shift from viewing cybersecurity incidents as pure cost centers or PR disasters to recognizing them as opportunities to strengthen stakeholder relationships and accelerate digital transformation initiatives.
Preparing for the Inevitable
The question isn’t whether your organization will face a cybersecurity crisis—it’s whether your C-suite will be prepared to lead through it effectively. Start building your decision framework today:
- Conduct tabletop exercises with realistic scenarios, time pressure, and consequences
- Establish clear escalation criteria and decision authorities
- Build relationships with IR counsel, PR firms, and forensic investigators before crisis strikes
- Create communication playbook that can be quickly customized for specific incidents
The Choice Ahead
The next time that phone rings at 2:47 AM, will your organization have the frameworks in place to transform crisis into competitive advantage? The choice is yours to make—preferably before the alarm sounds.
