I don't there are many people on the planet that haven't heard about the cyber attack on TalkTalk.
The trouble is with these stories, they tend to get whipped up into a frenzy and analysed to death by "security experts"by in our 24 hour news hungry culture. Then you have the corporate spin as the company goes into full reputation management mode, telling us it's not as bad as the media are making it.
Somewhere in the middle is the truth, which must be frustrating and worrying if you are a customer.
But as this incident will be generating oodles of Google content (this forum post being one of them), how do TalkTalk ensure they get their story out and stay above the news websites?
By an adwords campaign 
What a superb idea. Then for extra reassurance, links to a You Tube video so you can hear the news from the Boss lady herself, rather than the BBC or Sky.
Now I thought she came across quite well, she explained the hack was on the public website which doesn't store all the financial information or complete card numbers.
Then again, there seems to be a few thumbs down on her You Tube video which says others are not so convinced!
But in 15 hours of the video being online, it has generated 99,162 views, so it's been seen by a lot of people. What those people think of it is a different story, but at least they have heard the official line and can now draw their own conclusions.
There is an action list for any TalkTalk customers, including access to a free credit reporting service: help2.talktalk.co.uk/oct22incident
When it comes to reputation management, or damage limitation, getting your story and the facts out is key, before its spun by competitors or armchair analysts. No doubt it's been done before, but it's the first time I've seen a PPC campaign being used as a pre-emptive strike to target your own customers.
Be interesting to see how they weather the storm and, what or if anything comes out about how they could have mitigated against the attack or how they put safeguards in for the future.
I don't think I'd make too many assurances about not happening again in case the site gets compromised again 
At least it's taken the pressure of VW for 5 minutes 
