Communication Templates

Security SpecialistOperations & Strategy

Templates and building blocks for incident communications. Adapt these to your situation and tone.

Before You Post

Checklist

Get approval from Incident Leader or Decision Maker
Verify facts are accurate
Avoid speculation about root cause (until confirmed)
Include what users should do (or not do)
State when you'll provide the next update

What to Include

Element	When to Include
What happened (high level)	Always
User funds are safe	If true
What users should do	If action needed
What users should NOT do	If relevant (e.g., don't interact with X)
What still works	If partial outage
When you'll update next	Always
Link to status page or thread	If available

Building Blocks

Use these as modular pieces. Combine as needed for your situation.

Acknowledgment

We're aware of an issue affecting [service/feature] and are actively investigating.

Funds Safe

User funds are safe and have not been affected.

Funds at Risk (be careful)

We are investigating a potential security issue. Out of caution, we recommend users [specific action].

Action Required

If you [specific condition], please [specific action].

Do Not Interact

Do not interact with [specific thing] until further notice.

Service Paused

We have temporarily paused [service/feature] while we investigate.

Partial Outage

[Feature X] is currently unavailable. [Feature Y] and [Feature Z] continue to work normally.

Timeline Unknown

We don't have an ETA for resolution yet. We'll provide updates as we learn more.

Next Update

We'll provide an update within [timeframe] or sooner if the situation changes.

Resolution

The issue has been resolved. [Brief description of what happened and fix].

Post-Mortem Coming

We'll publish a detailed post-mortem within [timeframe].

Example Templates

Protocol Paused

For: Twitter/X, Discord announcement

We have temporarily paused [protocol/feature] while we investigate a potential issue.

User funds are safe. [OR: We are still assessing the situation.]

Do not interact with [specific contracts/UI] until we confirm the issue is resolved.

We'll provide an update within [1 hour / as soon as we know more].

Website/Frontend Down

For: Twitter/X, Discord announcement

Our website is currently unavailable. We've taken it offline while we investigate [a potential security issue / technical problems].

Your funds in the protocol are not affected. Do not approve any transactions from sites claiming to be [protocol name] until we confirm service is restored.

Follow this thread for updates.

Social Account Compromised

For: Alternate channel (Discord if Twitter compromised, etc.)

The [Twitter/Discord/Telegram] account of [person/official account] has been compromised.

Do NOT click any links or interact with messages from that account.

We are working to recover the account. Any legitimate announcements will come from [list alternate verified channels].

If you interacted with any links, revoke token approvals immediately at [revoke.cash or similar].

Active Exploit (P1)

For: Initial announcement, keep brief

We are aware of a security incident affecting [protocol/feature].

We are actively responding and will share more information as soon as possible.

[If applicable: We have paused affected contracts.]

Do not interact with [specific thing] until further notice.

For: Follow-up once stabilized

Update on the security incident:

[What happened - high level] [Current status] [What users should do] [Funds status - be precise about what was/wasn't affected]

We'll publish a full post-mortem within [timeframe].

Third-Party Outage

For: When the issue is not your fault

[Feature] is currently unavailable due to an outage at [provider/third-party].

Your funds are safe. This is affecting [what's broken] but [what still works] continues to function normally.

We're monitoring the situation and will restore service when [provider] resolves the issue.

Issue Resolved

For: Closing out an incident

The issue affecting [service/feature] has been resolved.

[One sentence on what happened] [One sentence on the fix]

Thank you for your patience. We'll share a post-mortem with more details within [timeframe].

Channel-Specific Notes

Twitter/X

Keep initial post short
Use thread for updates
Pin important updates

Discord

Use @everyone or @here sparingly (P1 only)
Create dedicated thread for ongoing updates
Lock thread after resolution to preserve record

Pin critical messages
Consider disabling chat during active incident to reduce noise

Tone Guidelines

Be direct and factual
Avoid jargon users won't understand
Don't speculate on root cause until confirmed
Don't blame (individuals, third parties, users)
Acknowledge impact on users
Avoid excessive apologies (one is enough)

See Incident-Response-Policy for the overall response process.