When a company is in the sights of the media on one issue, journalists’ perception of the news value of other negative stories about the brand increases.
An interesting case of this is what has happened to Vodafone in the past few days.
Even before the telco giant as had a chance to recover from its most recent PR disaster it has been hit once again by a story of a potential customer security breach.
Media nationally are reporting that the personal details of millions of Vodafone customers have been publicly available on the internet in what is being described as an ”unbelievable” lapse in security.
In fact, the numbers are not publicly available, but concerns have been raised over the fact they are stored (for dealers to access) on a password-protected web site, rather than an intranet.
It’s interesting to note the way that the story has been reported, drawing heavily on the other recent customer issues to give it more legs. See an example of the reports at The Sydney Morning Herald.