The biggest story of the year is covid-19, obviously. And while interest has waned from its peak in March, searches started to tick back up in early June:
But beyond the pandemic, there have been a number of major cybersecurity stories this year that offer a glimpse into what’s required to earn top-tier media coverage.
The list includes individual articles that either broke a story or became the most widely shared and cited version of the story, as well as how many other stories were written about that news.
Here are nine of the biggest cybersecurity stories of 2020 so far:
1. Forbes: WARNING—APPLE SUDDENLY CATCHES TIKTOK SECRETLY SPYING ON MILLIONS OF IPHONE USERS
- June 2020
- 446,307 shares
- 4M UVPM
- 42 total articles on TikTok spying concerns (expect many more in the second half of the year — they’re already trending)
2. FORBES: TRUMP’S DIRTY LAUNDRY: ANONYMOUS HACKERS THREATEN TO REVEAL ALL
- June 2020
- 236,808 shares
- 4M UVPM
- 167 articles on the news
3. BLEEPING COMPUTER: OVER 500,000 ZOOM ACCOUNTS SOLD ON HACKER FORUMS, THE DARK WEB
- April 2020
- 78,943 shares
- 5M UVPM
- 328 total articles on the news
4. Business Insider: HACKERS JUST LEAKED SENSITIVE FILES FROM OVER 200 POLICE DEPARTMENTS THAT ARE SEARCHABLE BY BADGE NUMBER
- June 2020
- 57,698 shares
- 3M UVPM
- 136 articles on the news
5. THE GUARDIAN: JEFF BEZOS HACK: AMAZON BOSS’S PHONE ‘HACKED BY SAUDI CROWN PRINCE’
- January 2020
- 42,835 shares
- 105M UVPM
- 677 articles on the news
6. MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: NEARLY HALF OF TWITTER ACCOUNTS PUSHING TO REOPEN AMERICA MAY BE BOTS
- May 2020
- 24,895 shares
- 2M UVPM
- 15 total articles on the news
7. Bloomberg: CYBER-ATTACK HITS U.S. HEALTH AGENCY AMID COVID-19 OUTBREAK
- March 2020
- 14,656 shares
- 8M UVPM
- 35 total articles on the news
8. Business Insider: IRAN’S ‘FORCEFUL REVENGE’ AGAINST THE US IS LIKELY TO INCLUDE CYBERWARFARE, AND EXPERTS WARN THAT THE ATTACKS COULD BE DEVASTATING
- January 2020
- 12,201 shares
- 3M UVPM
- 147 total articles on the news
9. BBC: HONDA’S GLOBAL OPERATIONS HIT BY CYBER-ATTACK
- June 2020
- 2,718 shares
- 2M UVPM
- 198 total articles on the news
Takeaway: If you want top-tier national and business media coverage, it helps if your story includes:
- A threat to a widely used consumer app. No surprise here. Major media want national stories that affect large groups of people. TikTok and Zoom are two of the latest examples.
- A big name. When the President and one of the richest people on the planet get hacked, it can drive stories for days or weeks.
- Current trends and national events. Security stories around remote work and Black Lives Matter protests add a new angle to a story national media have already been telling.
For more on what it takes to earn national media coverage, read our Q&A with Jeff Elder of Business Insider to see what he looks for in a story.
And if you’re having trouble leveling up your story for national media, we can help. Send me a note and let’s talk through your strategy.