If you were in the payments industry back in January 2009, you might recall that in addition to the onset of what came to be called the "Great Recession," data breaches were big news in our realm. RBS Worldpay and Heartland Payment Systems discovered they'd been clobbered by data breaches in 2008 and were reeling as a result.
As is the way with payments enterprises, the two companies morphed over the years: Worldpay no longer exists, having been absorbed by FIS in 2019, and Heartland Payment Systems is now a subsidiary of Global Payments. And while there isn't much in our archives from the time about what kind of remedial actions RBS took, we have several articles about steps Robert O. Carr, the company's chairman and CEO took. He was a very busy man.
His actions are a fine example of what to do in the wake of a negative event. Among the actions Carr and his staff took were to make sure any unauthorized flow of information from the breach was stopped immediately; reach out to merchants, partners and other industry stakeholders to alert them to the breach rather than try to hide it; determine ways to mitigate potential harm; establish information-sharing among peers in the industry, card brands, PCI Security Standards Council and government agencies about breaches and how to prevent them, something that was new at the time; cooperate fully with investigative and certifying entities; and develop new technology to safeguard data. Heartland's E3 terminal, launched in May 2009, employed end-to-end encryption, which was groundbreaking at the time and is now the norm.
Did Heartland take a reputational and financial hit? Absolutely. Did the company's actions in response to the crisis speed recovery. A resounding yes.
This reminds me a little bit of advice parents often give to their children when young: If you do something wrong (intentional or unintentional), fess up right away. It'll only get worse in the end if you lie about it. It makes sense, but it can be difficult to follow. But facing the problem head on is the first step toward getting over it and back on track.
So here's more of a formal list of things to do when you're faced with a situation that has the potential to harm or put and end to your company:
Heartland took a big hit, one that could have ruined the company. But the company did recover, and in 2016, Carr sold Heartland to Global Payments for a reported $4.3 billion. So, if your company becomes responsible for a harmful situation down the road, don't lose heart. Be the best leader you can be. Face the situation head on. It is your actions in the wake of such an incident that will make or break your reputation and future prosperity. 
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