Alternative Data &

Crisis Management:

Turning Challenges
Into Opportunity
for Security
Professionals

Alternative Data & Crisis Management: Turning Challenges Into Opportunity for Security Professionals 1
 When a crisis happens, a business
In partnership with ASIS International,
needs access to real-time information
Dataminr conducted a global survey to capture to formulate its response. Without a
current best practices and trends relating to
crisis management. The goal was to take a closer steady stream of accurate data, the
look at the role of alternative data sources,
particularly social media and publicly available security team’s crisis management
data, and how it supports company strategy
around critical incidents.
efforts can fall short, leaving the
company’s people and assets woefully
unprepared and unprotected. This
raises an important question: How
do corporate security executives gather
the information they need to anticipate
and respond to critical incidents?

Alternative Data & Crisis Management: Turning Challenges Into Opportunity for Security Professionals 2
What defines
The survey hones in on the inner workings Without a standard definition, companies
of each businesses crisis management may find it difficult to identify and react to
program. Since the definition of a crisis a crisis quickly. The longer it takes to

a “crisis”?
can vary by country and company, we define and respond to a crisis, the greater
asked how many of the survey participants potential there is for damage.
had a standard definition. We found that
In addition to determining how to classify
the majority (61%) of companies used a
a crisis, the survey asked if the companies
standard definition of a “crisis” based on
have a crisis management team. Eighty two
international or national crisis
percent reported having a crisis
management standards. For the remainder,
management team, while 15% did not.
there was a lack of consensus regarding
Interestingly, while a significant portion do
what constitutes a crisis, with 26% noting
not have a definition of what constitutes a
that they did not use a standard definition,
crisis, the majority do have a crisis
while 13% weren’t sure if one existed.
management team in place.

39%
39% say there is a lack of consensus regarding
what constitutes a crisis in their company

3
Corporate security
professionals face Workplace
a dizzying array Violence

of threats. Employee Man-made

When asked about their crisis experiences
in the last five years, respondents cited
incidents such as employee accidents,
workplace violence, cyber attacks, and
man-made disasters.
Kidnapping, organized crime, geo-political
disputes, active shooter situations, and
natural disasters, including hurricanes,
volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and
wildfires, also demanded the attention of
survey participants.
While news of terrorist attacks can Accidents Disasters
dominate the media, only 14% of businesses
experienced an attack in the last five years.
And while the comments received from
survey participants indicate that even
though responding to fast-moving events Cyber
is a pressing problem, the diversity of
threats remains one of the most significant Attacks
challenges for businesses.

Alternative Data & Crisis Management: Turning Challenges Into Opportunity for Security Professionals The top 4 cited incidents 4
Threats are coming from Which of the following crises
has your company experienced
two main buckets: in the last five years?

Corporate
Terrorist Wrongdoing: 12%

Attacks: 14%

Cyberattacks: 32% Workplace

Violence: 34%
Manmade
Disasters: 25% Employee
Accidents: 57%
Public Health
Issues: 18%
Consumer No Significant
Crisis: 20%
Activism: 24% Unsubstantiated
Allegations: 12%
Sabotage
or Corporate
Espionage: 10%

Political
Other Type
Unrest: 24% of Crisis: 17%

1. External sources 2. Internal sources 5

35% delay making decisions
as they don’t have a complete
What crisis
understanding of the incident challenges
do security
professionals
typically face?

35%
It’s clear there’s an absence of trustworthy
information at the disposal of the majority
of corporate security professionals
surveyed. Twenty-three percent of
participants said they lacked the tools and
expertise to monitor events in real time,
while 35% delay in making decisions, as
they don’t have a complete understanding
of the situation. If a company is missing
a real-time snapshot of a crisis, this
wreaks havoc with its response efforts.

6
 When it comes to isolating the most effectively deploying company resources,
important pieces of information during a which inevitably created delays in the crisis
crisis, 31% struggle to separate facts from contingency plan.
noise. This is particularly challenging
Despite a long list of challenges associated
during incidents that occur in a public
with crisis management and response,
place and attract extensive news coverage.
some survey participants expressed a
And when updating executive leadership
degree of skepticism regarding the use of
on developments, 22% struggle to provide
social media to gauge and manage their
up-to-date information.
company’s response to an incident.
Inexperience also has a negative impact on
The primary concern related to the
crisis management efforts, with
accuracy and integrity of data sourced
30% experiencing crises so infrequently
from social media. Thirty one percent
that their lack of familiarity hampers their
don’t trust unfiltered social media posts,
response. Nonetheless, companies expect
while 47% only trust posts that have been
their corporate security departments to
verified by another source. Similarly, 14% of
serve as the lead department during a
survey participants only place their trust in
crisis, along with the C-suite.
posts from reputable accounts.

22%
Furthermore, due to the lack of
trustworthy information available, survey
participants shared their struggle in

22% struggle to provide executive

leadership with up-to-date
information relating to a crisis
7
What tools are
available to improve
crisis management?
66%
66% check mainstream social
media platforms during a crisis
When a crisis unfolds, survey participants
use many data sources
to gather information about an
incident. Unsurprisingly, in the age of the
24-hour news cycle, 77% turn
to mainstream news channels. Social
media also plays a role in helping
corporate security departments gather
information about an incident, with 66%
of participants checking social media
platforms. Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram are the most prevalent.
More often than not, survey participants
use a combination of traditional and
alternative data sources to derive the most
accurate and complete picture of a
fast-moving event. Furthermore,
given the fact that corporate security
professionals often have experience in
law enforcement, the military, or the
intelligence services, many of the survey
participants highlighted the role of
informal and formal networks to gather
and disseminate intelligence as well.
When it comes to crisis management,
respondents confirmed that alternative
data can either serve as the primary
source of intelligence, or as a means
of supplementing and corroborating
information gathered via other channels,
such as the informal networks many
corporate security executives maintain.
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Overcoming
objections to
alternative data
starts with
education.
Given the average security professional’s
training and expertise, it’s common
to encounter a healthy degree of
skepticism regarding the use of social
media and publicly available data as
part of a crisis management effort.
Nevertheless, due to its ability to deliver
unprecedented access to real-time
information, half of corporate security
Alternative Data & Crisis Management: Turning Challenges Into Opportunity for Security Professionals
teams within the Fortune 100 companies
use alternative data as a core component
of their incident response efforts.
The difference between a security
department that embraces alternative
data and one that remains on the fence
often hinges on their exposure to real-
world examples of alternative data in
action. One of the best ways to address
Real-time alerting technology enables
risk professionals to mitigate and
manage crises more effectively.
skepticism is to provide a demonstration of
how social media posts evolve during a fast-
breaking incident to deliver value when
harnessed in the right way.
Real-time alerting technology is one such tool
enabling corporate security professionals to
be the first to know about high-impact events
and emerging risks, so they can mitigate and
manage crises more effectively.
9
 How to derive value
from alternative data.
To rely on alternative data, a mechanism
Given the increasingly dominant role of must exist to weed out information
technology in people’s daily lives, the breadth that is false, inaccurate, or misleading.
Ultimately, security professionals must
and depth of alternative data available rely on a combination of their own
will continue to grow exponentially. experience and training, existing tools,
and emerging technology to make
sense of incoming information and
decide how to act on it, long before it
becomes an element of the company’s
crisis management response effort.
If there’s a lack of traditional news
coverage—which is often the case—or the
event is local, fast-moving, and unlikely to
generate mainstream coverage, corporate
security departments must use every tool
at their disposal to make sense of breaking
Alternative Data & Crisis Management: Turning Challenges Into Opportunity for Security Professionals
events. If corporate security teams don’t
avail themselves of the technology needed
to analyze and distill alternative data into
actionable information, an executive or
employee outside the department may
fill the void with unfiltered—and likely
incomplete or inaccurate—information.
As the progress of digital transformation
shows, real-time, publicly available
information at scale is changing the way
the world works, which includes how
security professionals create and manage
a crisis. Possessing the tools to derive
value from alternative data could mean the
difference between the corporate security
department fulfilling its charter or falling
far short of the company’s expectations.
10
Obtaining
the budget.
Thirty-six percent of survey participants
don’t know if the budget for a social media
and public data sourcing and analysis tool
exists. Moreover, 24% say that there is no
budget at their disposal. When asked how
the budget might grow in the next 12 to 24
months, 41% do not know how it might
change, while 20% say that there are no
plans to set aside the budget for such tools.
Since a significant percentage of the
companies surveyed lack a budget for
alternative data and the associated
technology, and didn’t have plans to add
such expenditures to the budget in the
Alternative Data & Crisis Management: Turning Challenges Into Opportunity for Security Professionals
future, corporate security departments
should start a conversation to set aside the
requisite funds as early as possible.
Corporate security departments should
The department must do so while building start a conversation to set aside the
a business case to get buy-in from senior
management. It needs to be seen as a cost requisite funds as early as possible.
saver rather than a cost center be
demonstrating the benefits of proactive
crisis prevention and response, which
typically opens up budget. This will then
ensure the department has the tools and
support required to be an effective arm of
the company.
11
Survey
Summary

Alternative Data & Crisis Management: Turning Challenges Into Opportunity for Security Professionals 12
Geographies
674 survey participants
across five continents

Europe: 13%

South America: 4%

Asia: 9%

North America: 66% Africa: 8%

 Job Titles
Fifty-seven percent of survey participants function
as security managers or directors; the remainder
included security consultants, facilities managers,
C- level executives, and IT managers and directors.​

Information Technology 1%
Security Consultant 15%
Security Manager 57%

Facilities Manager 5%

C-level 8%

Other 14%
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Company Size
Over half of the survey participants (52%) worked for
companies with 100 to 10,000 employees; 19% at companies
with fewer than 100 employees; 16% at companies with more
than 10,000 employees, while 13% worked for companies with
over 50,000 employees.

Public vs Private

51%
Most participants worked for private companies (51%), while
18% worked for public companies. Survey respondents also
represented governmental and nonprofit sectors, as well as
education.

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 Dataminr is recognized as one of the world’s leading AI businesses.
The company’s clients are the first to know about high-impact events
and emerging risks so they can mitigate and manage crises more
effectively. Dataminr solutions are relied on 24/7 by hundreds of
clients in over 70 countries to help them solve real-world problems.
Dataminr was recently valued at $1.6 billion and is one of New York’s
top private technology companies, with nearly 500 employees across
six global offices.

Alternative
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Dataminr All rights & Crisis3385.080719DS
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