Diablo 3 Account Hacks
May 23, 2012 Leave a comment
Diablo 3 hit the shelves last week.
And a few days latter, people started hitting Diablo 3 accounts and stripping them of their gold and items.
Check out my new Geekwire article for more details.
Getting the story right when you didn’t get it right
March 16, 2012 2 Comments
Today via Geekwire (and others) we’re hearing about how the radio show This American Life has issued a wholesale retraction of their story from January about factory working conditions at an Apple supplier in China. The full retraction is available on This American Life’s blog.
What’s interesting about this is how they’re handling the issue. News organizations make mistakes and issue retractions regularly: this isn’t a unique incident. But, as This American’s Life’s press release makes clear, this wasn’t just any story for them. This was a very big story for them.
To their credit, since they have to retract a big story, they’re doing so in a big way. They’ve essentially done a new story talking about how they got this wrong. They’re even doing a special broadcast just to focus on how they got this wrong. And, they’ve taken full and clear responsibility, apologized, and spoken openly about how this situation can impact the trust their audience puts in them.
A big mistake on a big story requires a big response to make it right. By handling this like they have, This American Life has not only taken steps that very effectively mitigate the harm of this incident, by being so open and upfront they’ve also taken steps to actively regain the trust that they acknowledge an incident like this can harm.
This is a model for how news organizations can effectively handle situations like this. They really should be commended.
Ten Years After Bill Gates’ Trustworthy Computing Memo
January 16, 2012 Leave a comment
Ten years ago yesterday, Bill Gates sent out his Trustworthy Computing memo that marked a significant change in the culture at Microsoft and put security, privacy and reliability at the center of the company as ideals.
I was at Microsoft as part of the Microsoft Security Response Center when that came out. And until I left Microsoft in December 2010, I was involved in security and privacy. So I have a former insider’s long-term view of what that was all like.
As my former colleagues are marking the occasion I’m sharing my own thoughts on what it meant then and what it means for the future.
Here are my comments in Robert X. Cringly’s article “PC security: We’ve come a long way, baby“. And a longer write-up by me over at Betanews ”10 years after Bill Gates’ Trustworthy Computing memo: What it meant for Microsoft and why every tech company needs one“.
It was something to be a part of, but the world is different today. Part of my take on it is how this is still relevant in this different world.
Overresponding: A Lesson
November 28, 2011 3 Comments
Say this about Twitter, it certainly is a treasure trove of incident mishandling for analysis.
Today’s lesson comes to us from the Topeka Kansas Home Office and is about the danger of overresponding to an issue. Overresponding means you respond to the issue with more force than is appropriate and in so doing your response creates more problems than it solves. Overresponse is actually a very common pitfall in crisis communications and is typically a panic move made by people who aren’t experienced in this arena.
The lesson comes from Kansas governor Sam Brownback, or more accurately his director of communication Sherriene Jones-Sontag. This Associated Press story has all the important details, but the key points are that a high school student joking tweeted something negative about the governor on Friday. His director of communications spotted it and complained to the school, who promptly brought the student in and told her she had to write an apology.
Setting aside the ways this incident from the outset has clear incendiary qualities because of the way it looks (and frankly is) the governor and the school system bringing their coercive force to bear on an expression of speech, this is a classic example of overresponding to a negative comment.
The fact is that this critic had a mere 65 followers. If there had been no response from the governor’s office, the only people that would have even seen this criticism are maybe 100 people at most. It’s a simple bet that well over 100 people have seen that original remark now after the governor’s response. From that standpoint alone, the handling represents overresponse: their response drove more eyeballs to the negative news than would have seen it if they just left it alone.
Add to that then the nature of the response and how broadly negative the response to that response is. On the first business day after the story broke the governor and school district have had to retreat and apologize. That tells us that both the governor and the school district were coming out strongly on the losing end of public opinion. A retraction that quickly is essentially saying “uncle”.
Worse yet, this response has spiraled now beyond the original issue and is prompting broader questions that may linger and be more damaging than this incident was. This opinion piece by Dean Obeidallah on CNN (a high profile site) raises a number of questions that I’m sure the governor’s office would prefer never have been raised, particularly the question about tax payer funding of social media monitoring and the likening of the governor’s actions to Nixon’s enemies list.
What this illustrates is what can go wrong if you overrespond to an issue. What people should take away from this is the importance of understanding that not every negative comment deserves a response. Sometimes your response can make an issue bigger than it would be otherwise. And sometimes your response can take on a life of its own and become more of a negative issue than the original thing that prompted the response. Finally, this also highlights how freedom of speech issues are very hot button and organizations should always try to never look like they’re on the wrong side of that issue.
In the end, sometimes the right thing to do is the less obvious thing: leave the issue alone. And this is where people who are experienced in crisis communications can help, because we understand these risks and can help make an informed assessment on whether it makes sense to respond at all.
JetBlue: A better, more personal response
October 31, 2011 Leave a comment
To follow up my post earlier today, it appears JetBlue is taking a better, more personal track in their response. Late today they posted a video statement by the COO on their blog site that definitely hits a much better tone and hits some of the points I wrote that I thought a better response should contain (including that it be a video response). It acknowledges shortcomings, speaks with empathy and understanding, has an apologetic tone, promises improvements, and most of all, is direct and personal putting a real person with a real name and title up for all to see.
I can’t take any credit for it. I did post a link to my post on their site under their original posting, but have no idea if anyone there read it.
But the important thing is that this shows that some of the points I raised as far as a better, more personal handling are valid ones.
Hopefully they’ll keep on this more transparent, more personal track moving forward. If nothing else, they deserve credit for changing course relatively quickly.
Once is happenstance…
October 31, 2011 2 Comments
…twice is coincidence. The third time is enemy action. So says Ian Flemming’s Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger.
I’m thinking of this saying today as I read about JetBlue having another major situation around airline passengers being virtually held prisoner on planes on the tarmac in the Northeast this past weekend. There’s details here, including a recounting of a pilot’s pleading for assistance. By the way, if you want an example of a nightmarish story to try and manage, here’s a local paper recounting the experience of a guy on one flight in a wheelchair who talks about feeling like a “hostage” in the ordeal.
This is the second time JetBlue’s name has been associated with a situation like this. Indeed, the first incident is a key driver for the very regulations that they now face penalties from.
Yes, the circumstances were the result of forces of nature. But the fact that JetBlue already has failed in this arena once before gives them little wiggle room in terms of perception. Further, the fact that other airlines seem to have been unaffected or not nearly as badly as affected puts them in a class by themselves on this.
Their response to the first incident wasn’t enough to undo the damage then. And if you look at their response to this, I predict once again it won’t help. Their blog in particular is a very poor attempt to manage this situation and may well make things worst. First, the blog starts with a joking tone. While I advocate humor and levity as a means of injecting an authentic voice, this isn’t the time or place. People felt like hostages: don’t make light of that. In that vein, the blog also totally lacks any empathetic acknowledgement of the pain and suffering passengers experienced. Also, the blog lacks any clear taking of responsibility for the situation. And finally, the “remedy” that is offered won’t seem like compensation to anyone outside of JetBlue. Not making passengers pay for their own incarceration shows, as a friend once put it, “delusions of adequacy”. If they want to make it up to people, they’re going to have to start there and move upwards.
If JetBlue wants to nip this in the bud and prevent if from being as big a harm to their brand as the last tarmac debacle, they should quickly pivot their handling, put out a statement by the CEO (preferably on video so the sincerity, if it’s there, can be seen) that very clearly says:
- Yes, we screwed up, again. I am sorry for the genuine pain and suffering you all experienced because of our failures. Ultimately, it’s my responsibility and I personally apologize to all of you.
- The weather was unprecedented and everyone scrambled. But somehow, we seemed to fall short yet again. I don’t know why we fell down so badly yet again but I will.
- To our affected customers, and all customers, I promise a complete, transparent investigation as to how this happened, how we can prevent this from happening again, what we’re going to do to try and keep this from happening again, and regular updates on how we’re coming with these changes. As part of this, I promise real consequences for people who let you down.
- Of course, we’re not going to charge any of you for these flights. But we will also try to make it up to you and give you a reason to give us another chance.
If they don’t do something like this, the risk is that others will think about this like I do. And if there IS a third incident like this, the enemy action that Goldfinger talks about: that’s the action of JetBlue against its passengers. It’s generally bad for brand when customers start to think of you as an enemy.
Facebook and Online Dating Security
May 11, 2012 Leave a comment
Two new postings from me today on Facebook and online dating security.
Over at Windmill Networking, this month’s column is on Facebook pages and two things that you can do to improve your security and help keep control of your Facebook page.
And over at Seattle’s KING5, see me talk about online dating security on Jesse Jones’ “Get Jesse” segment.
Filed under Analysis and Commentary, Social Media, Technology Tagged with Facebook, Get Jesse, Interviews, KING 5, Online Dating, Privacy, Security, Television, Windmill Networking