This year saw some of our biggest brands in an Olympic-style sprint to the bottom of the reputation heap.

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From the Optus 000 debacle to Qantas customer details on the dark web and Deloitte's AI petticoat exposed, 2025 had it all.

The result? This race had no winners, least of all customers and service users.

We witnessed half-hearted apologies, erratic messaging - or no communication at all, even when lives depended on it.

Those blunders, some cringeworthy and others deeply sinister, gave rise to crucial lessons about what not to do when your brand is embroiled in a crisis.

For Qantas, the year lived up to every pun you can think of involving the word turbulence.

After a cyber attack involving 6 million customers' records, our national carrier proactively contacted everyone affected to outline the extent of the breach and how it was responding.

Brownie points for a solid effort.

It didn't last, though. When stolen customer data eventually leaked onto the dark web, Qantas reverted to a say-as-little-as-possible strategy, seeming to have little regard for the many loyal customers now stressed out at the prospect of their details landing in the hands of very bad people.

There mightn't be an easy fix for the increasing threat of cyber crime, but trust is decimated when customers are kept in the dark about impacts on their personal data.

Whatever the reason for a breach, leaders need to communicate early about what they know and what they expect to happen next.

There were more woes for Qantas, branded Australia's........

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