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Peter Beck is a seasoned communications leader with over 15 years of experience in strategic communications and public relations across the technology sector. Currently serving as Communications Manager, EMEA at cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks, Peter plays a pivotal role in shaping and executing communications strategies across Europe.
Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, Peter held senior roles at endpoint management specialist Tanium where he led international initiatives that elevated executive visibility and drove thought leadership around emerging technologies. Peter’s career spans notable tenures at cybersecurity company Mandiant, where he managed both internal and external communications across EMEA and spearheaded global channel communications and Rackspace, where he served as European Communications Specialist, focusing on media relations and training spokespeople. With a reputation for strategic thinking and meticulous execution, Peter continues to influence the tech communications landscape with an innovative approach and impactful storytelling.
I was introduced to cybersecurity during my first job at a PR agency and I was hooked straightaway. What grabbed me most was the storytelling element. Every cyber incident naturally has the ingredients of a gripping story – there’s an attacker, a victim and a real-world impact. Of course, you’d rather attacks didn’t happen, but that’s not the reality, which means there are constantly new developments and reminders of the critical role that our sector plays.
In cyber, there is always something new and interesting around the corner. Recently, for example, Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 team – our incident response and threat intelligence experts – discovered Iranian attackers impersonating a model agency to target dissidents. You don’t tend to find fascinating stories like this in many other sectors. On top of this, the pace of technological change is extraordinary. Everyone is talking about AI, but quantum computing could be equally significant. The fact that attackers are already stockpiling encrypted data in the hope of cracking it in the future using quantum shows just how much of a game changer the tech could become. I enjoy delving into topics like this and creating campaigns around them.
The biggest change has been the speed of everything. Cybersecurity has always moved quickly but the frequency of breaches, the range of threats, rapidly evolving technology and the fast-changing regulatory environment means it’s a more high-pressure environment than it used to be. This creates brilliant communications opportunities, but the challenge for small in-house teams is to keep up with the pace.
For me, the essence of any communication should come from a person’s input in order to retain authenticity. AI tools are useful, but as a support, not a replacement. They can be applied in lots of different ways – whether it’s tightening copy for structured formats like press releases, or injecting creativity into less formulaic content, such as generating attention grabbing headlines. They are also a real time saver for content like award entries.
Beyond this, AI can add real value in other areas too. From drafting social posts and tracking their performance, to identifying the right journalists, influencers and opportunities beyond traditional media. Ultimately though, the tone of voice, the message and the human perspective are what make content credible and that can’t be replaced by AI in my opinion.
One of the toughest challenges has been securing media attendance at vendor-owned events. After the pandemic there was a big push to physically bring people together again, and a lot of marketing budget was funnelled into that. But five years on, with the media landscape shrinking, persuading journalists to give up a big chunk of their day when they’re already so busy is harder than ever.
At Palo Alto Networks we try to create a compelling package to offer journalists. It’s not enough to say ‘we’ve got executives who are available’ – you need to try and line up announcements, customers, fresh research, strong keynotes and a variety of topics they can explore to justify the time investment. At big industry shows it’s a little easier, as the press are already there, but for your own events you really have to work hard to make them successful from a PR point of view.
I’ll give a slightly facetious answer here and say you can choose any KPI you like – message pull through, share of voice, reach – but, if they aren’t aligned with overall comms objectives and the wider business, they won’t carry much weight.
This goes beyond simply sending KPIs to stakeholders over email and getting them signed off. It’s about having meaningful conversations around how PR activities and results can best support sales and marketing. I like to start by deciding what success looks like. That might be something obvious, like securing more tier one coverage hits, or something more targeted, like gaining traction in a niche vertical that presents a business opportunity for sales. From there, you work backwards and set KPIs that encourage comms teams and agencies to prioritise the areas that will have the biggest impact on the business.
Although global alignment on a set of key metrics is recommended, I think some flexibility should be allowed from region to region so comms KPIs are mapped to the differing local priorities.
The bottom line is that too often as an industry we point to coverage metrics and assume the value speaks for itself. But if they aren’t aligned with the wider business, you won’t get lasting buy-in.
This is one of the areas that has changed the most since I started in cybersecurity. A decade ago, the public, industry and regulators viewed crisis management, especially communication after a cybersecurity incident, differently than they do today. Expectations and standards were far lower.
Fast forward to current times and preparation is key. You need to know exactly who to involve in the event of a crisis, have an approved strategy ready to kick into action and processes that avoid unnecessary delays. Mock crisis exercises are also vital, not just to stress-test the plan, but to understand how individuals work best under pressure and how to support each other. These drills need to be run regularly and across different scenarios.
Having a close working relationship with the policy and legal teams is also important. It will help you get to know the regulatory requirements inside out, which is essential for crisis scenarios but also for sourcing ideas for proactive PR pitches.
It’s interesting to see organisations recruiting different skills into their comms teams to evolve with the new crisis demands. I’ve seen hostage negotiation skills listed on job descriptions which is something I didn’t see a decade ago! This influx of new skills should really strengthen the crisis response capabilities of cyber firms, which is great.
I think the biggest impact could be in analysing how to influence LLMs through PR. I’m fascinated by the idea of a ‘share of model’ metric. As more search queries are answered by LLMs, understanding where those models source their information will be crucial. Imagine being able to run analysis of what media outlets they’re pulling from, you could adjust your PR strategy to focus on generating coverage that will have the greatest influence on LLM outputs.
On the measurement side, this could also be a step change. If you can demonstrate to stakeholders that your press coverage is driving positive results for the organisation when someone enters a prompt, for instance, for “what is the best endpoint security solution”, that’s tangible. It could do for PR measurement what SEO once did for digital marketing.
I don’t believe AI will replace PR professionals any time soon. If anything, it is strengthening our role by enhancing what we do, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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