FTI Consulting’s Brett Callow on Crisis Communications and Attribution Risk
The ransomware landscape has shed the predictability that once made incident response manageable. Threat actors now contact business partners, customers and media directly, often before victims detect an attack, said Brett Callow, senior advisor, cybersecurity and data privacy communications, FTI Consulting.
See Also: AI Impersonation Is the New Arms Race—Is Your Workforce Ready?
That unpredictability has made pre-incident planning non-negotiable. Organizations that have not locked down communications plans, identified response teams and established clear internal protocols before an attack hits are not ready, Callow said.
“The old playbooks have gone. They’re out of the window. Companies need to be ready to be a lot more proactive than they were in the past,” he said.
In this video interview with Information Security Media Group at RSAC Conference 2026, Callow also discussed:
- The risks and challenges of attribution in ransomware incidents;
- How swatting threats against employees have added a new dimension to crisis communications planning;
- How legal, security and communications teams must align before attribution becomes part of any public statement.
Callow advises organizations on cybersecurity and data privacy communications. He has more than 20 years of experience in cybersecurity policy and public affairs and served on the advisory board of the Royal United Services Institute’s Ransomware Harms Project.
