EY Canada teams up with law firm and communications agency on cybersecurity offering
EY Canada has partnered with international law firm Norton Rose Fulbright and strategic communications agency Provident Communications to deliver an integrated cybersecurity, law, and crisis communications offering.
More than 28 million Canadians were affected by a data breach between November 2018 and November 2019, according to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. On the business side, a whopping 77% of companies are operating with limited cybersecurity and resilience capabilities, according to a global report from EY.
The new integrated data breach crisis response offering from EY Canada, Norton Rose Fulbright, and Provident communications will give Canadian organizations a fully integrated source for cybersecurity, legal, and crisis communications.
“The volume, variety and sophistication of cyberattacks are growing daily,” said Yogen Appalraju, EY Canada cybersecurity leader. “At the same time, new regulatory and compliance obligations and other stakeholder expectations have introduced additional complexity that impacts the ability of organizations to rapidly respond to threats. Our combined cybersecurity, legal, and communications offering will enable companies to be better aligned and respond with more speed and effectiveness during a crisis."
The trio will also deliver a strategic playbook to help companies effectively respond to emerging data breaches. The playbook will offer actionable, client-specific insights covering process and response team structure, legal strategy, and communications messaging, among other areas.
“Our strategic playbook will empower boards and executive leadership teams to anticipate, identify, and proactively address potential gaps in their planning, thereby ensuring that they have a clear action plan in place for when a crisis strikes," Walied Soliman, partner and Canadian chair of Norton Rose Fulbright, said.
Wojtek Dabrowski, managing partner at Provident Communications, added, "The economic cost of a cyberattack is significant for an organization of any size, but the resulting loss of customer trust and the harm to a company's reputation can be just as painful and take longer to repair. Responding effectively to customers, media, investors, employees, regulators, and all other stakeholders in real time is absolutely critical to managing a cybersecurity crisis and limiting its long-term negative impacts."
EY in September 2019 acquired ElevatedPrompt Solutions, a Vancouver-based cybersecurity managed services provider. The move expanded the managed services offering within EY’s cybersecurity practice, which offers solutions in business resilience, program management, threat management, identity & access management, and data protection and privacy.
