Overview

As 2020 was winding down to its chaotic end, Kristy Campbell, VP of Global Communications at Proofpoint, saw an opportunity. On the heels of a heated election and number of data breaches—including the devastating Solar Winds hack—how were Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) themselves holding up?
CISOs are the individuals entrusted with keeping companies safe from ransomware, phishing attacks, and other network threats. They are also the people who had to move entire networks to “work from home” environments…overnight. While CISO responsibilities are many and varied, they are underrepresented in the media.
Kristy wanted to put them on the map. Under her leadership, the global PR team conducted a messaging audit across the security industry in partnership with Proofpoint’s global resident CISO lead, Lucia Milică. Few IT vendors have resident CISOs at their disposal and she saw this as a real opportunity to gather actionable insights and keep their peers informed of the latest pandemic-related cyber threats.
The campaign objectives were threefold. 1) Increase the CISO team’s visibility as a leading voice in cybersecurity by securing tier-one coverage across key markets in NOAM, EMEA and APAC, 2) Leverage peer expertise to tell “insider stories” of the fight against cybercriminals, giving reporters fresh story angles as the pandemic evolved, and 3) explore the pandemic-related challenges facing CISOs globally to generate specific regional insights for national tier 1 and tech media.