Reference no: EM133018751

Your client

Little Finance is a mid-sized, financial services company with an annual turnover of around $A 2.5 million. They recently discovered that they have been subject to a data breach, where the past three years' worth of client financial data (2600+ clients) was made publicly available on the internet. This data included bank details and other identifiable personal and financial information. Their technical firm has worked to contain the breach and all client records are secure again. It is unknown if the records were accessed by unauthorised people during the time they were publicly available. The discovery of this data breach was made in the past 7 days. Little Finance will upgrade their security system as soon as possible. Neither clients nor staff of Little Finance know about the data breach yet.

Little Finance know they must communicate about this incident, but are unsure what they need to communicate and who they have to communicate with. Ms Jane Birkin, the CEO, has hired Orange Communications to handle the next steps.

You are a Communication Consultant at Orange Communications and you have prepared a portfolio of documents for Little Finance to use. You have written these documents in the Plain English style that is required in business communication. Now you need to contact your client company and let them know the portfolio is ready.

Your task

• Identify any reporting requirements which need to be undertaken - if this needs to be reported to any regulatory authority, write a brief to the client explaining who needs to report, who they need to report to and what they need to report.
• Put together a communication plan with the following supporting communication types:
• A draft email and social media post which is focused on the clients of Little Finance (you determine the social media channel/s which this will be utilised - justify this choice in the communication plan - the social media post is required to be audio-visual)
• A draft email explaining to staff at Little Finance what has happened and what the next steps are
• A script to give to a spokesperson who may be asked questions about the incident. Include advice on tone and body language associated with the script.

The Portfolio

The portfolio should be presented as a series of documents, beginning with a cover letter. The cover letter should be addressed to the client, Little Finance, and give a brief overview of what you are recommending the next steps are.

There are seven elements which need to be submitted as part of the portfolio:

1. A cover letter to tell Little Finance that the portfolio is ready
2. A brief outlining any official or legal reporting requirements
3. A written communication plan to explain the documents and advise on timing
4. An email to the clients of Little Finance explaining what has happened
5. A social media post for the clients of Little Finance
6. An email to staff at Little Finance explaining situation (internal document) and
7. A script to give to a spokesperson in case a media representative asks for a statement (internal document).