Dutch company Wolters Kluwer NV makes the software on which many of the world's small and midsize accounting firms run. Earlier this week, a cyberattack took down that software and presented a case study in how not to communicate with customers over a hack.

The company told its followers on Facebook and Twitter on May 6 that, out of caution, it'd taken some of its cloud-based software applications offline. But the opaque 48-word statement didn't explain why, and left customers frustrated and worried.

“Going dark as much as you have has done nothing to stop us from fearing the worst,” one person replied on Twitter. “Has there been a security breach?” asked another.

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