It is never a good idea to have a core business service breakdown in a bad financial market. Investors, already in a bad mood, give no pause for thought. Or reputation.

Heartland Payment Systems suffered a near death experience when, in a bad market, they suffered the greatest data breach in history. Over time, they were able to restore trust, and repair much of the damage to their reputation. But the short-term liquidity gap was perilous.

This week, the unlucky firm is Knight Capital. According to Dealbook, technical problems yesterday "led the firm’s computers to rapidly buy and sell millions of shares in over a hundred stocks for about 45 minutes after the markets opened. Those trades pushed the value of many stocks up, and the company’s losses appear to have occurred when it had to sell the overvalued shares back into the market at a lower price." Its own share price has dropped from $10.30 at Tuesday's close to $3.54 as this note is being posted.

Once again, a fine company with a small prominent technology problem, fixed, and  a large reputational crisis looming. In the spirit of mortui vivos docent, there could not be a better example of the business case for quantitative reputation management and  Reputation Value Insurance.