Grayling has established a cybersecurity consulting and advisory unit to help clients respond to data breaches and deal with the raft of regulatory matters.

Mike LocatisNew chief Pete Pedersen, who chaired Edelman’s tech practice before joining the Huntsworth unit in February, believes any company that collects, transmits, stores or use consumer data is at risk from sophisticated cyber-attacks.

Michael Locatis, who stepped down in January after a nine-month stint as assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Dept. of Homeland Security, is part of the Grayling team.

Prior to DHS, Locatis was chief information officer at the Dept. of Energy. He runs Nexusist, a Grayling affiliate.

Huntsworth-owned Grayling believes its offering differs from security consulting firms that focus on network protection.

It’s focuses on risk mitigation, management and 24/7 awareness of enterprise risk posture.

Grayling has offices in more than 40 countries.