At the moment, Booz Allen Hamilton is what is called “collateral damage” from the revelation that self-confessed government document leaker Edward Snowden worked at the government contracting/consulting firm.
The immediate damage was to the company stock which was down as much as 5% after the leak and Snowden’s association was made known. Booz Allen responded to the news about their employee by firing Snowden and issued a statement on its website, reiterating its shock at the situation:
Booz Allen can confirm that Edward Snowden, 29, has been an employee of our firm for less than 3 months, assigned to a team in Hawaii. News reports that this individual has claimed to have leaked classified information are shocking, and if accurate, this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm. We will work closely with our clients and authorities in their investigation of this matter.
Now comes the next stage to find out if the media or Congressional investigators aim its sights at Booz with a barrage of questions: How did he get hired? Who supervised him? How did he get access to such key documents? Did anyone else assist him?
At CommCore, we assume that Booz Allen has a crisis plan that provides some direction on how monitor the crisis that primarily involves Snowden but that could come back to further scrutiny of the firm. Booz should also be monitoring Twitter and blogs for comments.
We think Snowden type events should be wake-up calls for any organization to make sure that you have a crisis plan, adjust for new types of events and then figure out when you can drill with your team.