I have been working with Carolin Desirée Toepfer for several years now. She is THE expert in the field of cybersecurity. We also offer joint workshops.
Often, we are asked what cybersecurity has to do with communication.
What might not be immediately apparent is actually of great importance.
Why we offer both aspects in the workshop:
Raising Awareness and Sensitization: The workshop aims to sensitize employees and managers to potential threats and to raise their awareness. The skills learned must also be passed on to employees. Managers and security officers rely on communicating these clearly and understandably to their teams. If they lack the necessary communication skills, all efforts are in vain or may even be misunderstood.
Incident Response and CrisisManagement: When a security incident occurs, it is crucial to communicate quickly and effectively—both internally within the company and, if necessary, externally with customers, partners, and authorities. Even if many think this will never be necessary, it is important to be prepared.
Malicious Social Engineers: These individuals use psychological tricks to get others to divulge confidential information or carry out dangerous actions (e.g., phishing emails). In my part, I help with professional communication techniques. When employees can correctly assess suspicious contacts, fraudsters are more easily exposed. Training in confident communication, as well as information control and escalation skills, are helpful.
Leadership Skills: In leadership positions in the cybersecurity field, decisions often need to be made quickly and under pressure and communicated clearly. Argumentation and persuasion skills, as well as clarity, calmness, and confidence, are important aspects of communication and make a decisive difference. You can learn all this.
The combination of cybersecurity knowledge and good communication skills is extremely important for leaders in this field. Only in this way can they correctly assess dangers, ensure clarity within the team, and act quickly and convincingly in an emergency. This blend of technical and social skills is the key to successful crisis management in IT security.
