How it usually looks
The scenario repeats from company to company. First, clients and partners are told that “scheduled maintenance” or a “software update” is under way. When it can no longer be hidden, the company cautiously admits that yes, there was an attack, but everything is under control. In reality, weeks and months go into restoring processes, searching for lost data and rebuilding what had worked for years.
Ransomware, a stolen database, systems down for several days: companies of every size go through this. It is simply embarrassing to admit it in public, so the market sees the true scale only out of the corner of its eye.
Why they hide it
The reasons are clear: fear of losing clients and reputation, reluctance to show weakness to competitors, and worry about questions from regulators and partners. As a result, the incident is “swept under the carpet”, no lessons are learned, and the company stays just as vulnerable to the next blow.
The real scale of the damage
The most worrying part is that damage of hundreds of millions of roubles, and sometimes as much as RUB 1 billion, hardly surprises anyone any more. The number of attacks on businesses in Russia almost doubled in a year. Gradually, people have come to see this as an unavoidable cost of doing business.
What to do about it
Secrecy does not cure the problem. It keeps the problem in place. Healthy practice is the opposite: accept in advance that an incident can happen to anyone, and prepare for it. This means knowing your critical processes, having a recovery plan and backup options, and after any incident, examining its causes openly instead of hiding them.
You can find out how resilient your business is right now. Start with a short assessment that shows your level of readiness and your main risks.
Hide or disclose: the consequences for the business
| Strategy | Short-term effect | Long-term outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Complete silence | No panic, quiet repairs | The leak comes out, and the loss of trust and the fines hit twice as hard |
| Partial admission | A managed story for the media | Inconsistencies damage trust more than the attack itself |
| Honest disclosure | A short wave of negative coverage | Reputation as a reliable partner, client loyalty |
| Disclosure plus lessons learned | Attention from the industry, questions from clients | Status of a mature company; the case works for the brand |
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to report a cyberattack?
For some organisations and types of data, the law requires notifying regulators. But even where you may formally stay silent, concealment usually costs more: causes that were never investigated raise the risk of a repeat incident.
Why is prevention cheaper than recovery?
Recovery means downtime, lost data, fines, client churn and reputational damage, all at once. Preventive measures (assessment, a continuity plan, redundancy, training) cost a fraction of that and reduce both the likelihood and the consequences.
Is your team ready for the first hour of a crisis?
You test a plan by running a scenario. Reading it is not enough. The assessment shows the gaps, and the corporate format works through them with your team on your own processes.
