For as long as there have been executives there have been executive threats. It’s the unfortunate lay of the land that the bigger the name or the more airtime an executive has, the more likely that they’ll be the recipient of various threats.
Over the years, the number of threats against executives in online environments has grown, ranging from death threats and hate speech right through to doxings and attacks against an executives’ private residences. In more extreme cases, attacks extend from executives alone to include their family or loved ones.
With such threats increasingly common, it’s imperative for organisations to protect their people in real-time, catching risks before any damage is done, and gaining better peace of mind overall.
Threats grow following pandemic and topical issues
As branding has evolved, the role of executives has also transformed. Leaders today have become the face of a business, and are more likely to speak out not only about the business they represent but topical issues such as the pandemic or climate change. Even not speaking out can be seen as a failing on the part of the organisation. Overall, with a bigger spotlight comes more attention - good and bad.
Recent studies have highlighted the rise in executive threats, highlighting that employees in U.S. companies stated their CEO received physical threats after taking (58%) or not taking (40%) a position on a racial or political issue. Overall, 35% said there was growing concern about extremists, with a lot of this activity tied to larger issues. In addition, the pandemic witnessed a massive increase in executive threats, with physical attacks more prevalent.
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Keeping executives safe in the face of extremists
If security teams are to adequately face these threats head on, they must gain a more thorough picture of what people are saying, plotting, or bragging about in order to ensure risks can be intercepted and executives, as well as their loved ones, can stay safe. It’s important to know what’s going on in public forums for discussion, such as Twitter, as well as more nefarious corners of the internet, such as the dark web.
Recognising the need for increased security measures, open source intelligence gathering forms a critical aspect of increased situational awareness and risk mitigation for advanced executive protection.
Signal provides open source intelligence that enables security teams to effectively monitor and analyse open source data available and use targeted searches to gain more in-depth situational awareness. Leveraging this intelligence enables security teams to objectively evaluate current security challenges, and launch risk-mitigation measures.
All we know for sure is in today’s day and age we need to remain as vigilant as possible, catching threats before they turn into something more sinister. While every organisation needs a master plan, they also need tools and effective security intelligence that will make that plan a functional, daily practice.
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