New Book: 'Digital Assassination: Protecting Your Reputation, Brand or Business Against Online Attacks' Released Today

NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- "In the future, which is now, everyone will have 15 minutes of shame."

This is one of many arresting statements from Digital Assassination: Protecting Your Reputation, Brand or Business Against Online Attacks released today by St. Martin's Press.

Co-authors Richard Torrenzano and Mark Davis, leading advisors to Fortune 500 companies and public figures, predict what the end of privacy will mean for civilization—and provide a course of action to turn the tables on your would-be assassins.  

Using compelling stories from history and today's headlines, Torrenzano and Davis illustrate the "Seven Swords of Digital Assassination" — seven distinct forms that digital attackers assume:

• New Media Mayhem — "Gossip Girls" replacing traditional media and balanced reporting
• Silent Slashes — Online damage to your business and reputation by unfelt "cuts"
• Evil Clones — Confessions to something terrible using your name and image
• Human Flesh Search Engine — Crowd sourcing that inspires instant digital lynch mobs
• Jihad by Proxy — Moneyed interests that engage in "motive laundering" to launch deadly online attacks  
• Truth Remix — Spinning a bad fact into something far worse
• Clandestine Combat — The ease with which competitors or enemies purloin your secrets

These 'Seven Swords of Digital Assassination' cut and slice at reputations in different ways. Each can be devastating, whether singly or in combination.  

The book details how these online assassins work, and what you can do to minimize, neutralize, and even defeat them using the 'Seven Shields of Digital Assassination'— seven actions to protect your reputation, brand, business or life.

Comments on the Book

Torrenzano and Davis blend a compelling narrative, killer anecdotes and page-turning prose into a sober and worrying account of what happens when the darker side of human nature harnesses the connectedness and anonymity of today's web. Their Digital Assassination should be in the hands of anyone who has a good name -- or a good business -- to protect.

--General Michael Hayden, most recent Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and longtime head of the super-secret, ultra-high technology National Security Agency

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Digital Assassination provides a compass -- as well as a road map -- for navigating the potholes, pitfalls and landmines of our new digital world.  It is a must read for every CEO and top executive.

--Dick Grasso, former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, New York Stock Exchange

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Do you have a good reputation? Then be sure to protect it by reading Digital Assassination where the authors lay out seven ways you and your company can be irreparably harmed at the speed of a Twitter post. Knowledge is power, so pay heed to the keen and timely advice here.

--Charlene Li, author of the best-seller and visionary book Groundswell and  Open Leadership

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Digital Assassination is incredibly timely. It unveils Internet attacks by invisible destructive villains, while offering actionable solutions to defend personal reputations and corporate brands.

--Michael Jones, Chief Operating Office, Public Broadcasting System (PBS)

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About the Authors

Richard Torrenzano is chief executive of The Torrenzano Group, a New York strategic communications and high-stakes issues management firm that helps organizations "take control of how they are perceived." For almost a decade he was a member of the New York Stock Exchange's Management and Executive committees. He has managed some of the most visible global corporate crises in our lifetime.

Mark Davis is a former White House speechwriter and a senior director of the Washington-based White House Writers Group, where he has consulted with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as well as with some of the nation's leading telecommunications, information technology and defense-aerospace companies. He is a frequent lecturer, writer and blogger on politics, technology, and the future.

For more information: www.digitalassassinationbook.com

DIGITAL ASSASSINATION
Protecting Your Reputation, Brand or Business Against Online Attacks
By Richard Torrenzano and Mark Davis
St. Martin's Press
Price: $25.99 hardcover/$12.99
Publication Date: October 25, 2011
ISBN: 0-312-61791-7

SOURCE Torrenzano Group