Executive Protection with OSINT

Executive protection refers to security and risk mitigation measures taken to guarantee the safety of individuals, particularly those exposed to elevated risk due to their employment, status, or net worth. Executive protection of VIPs previously involved hiring close protection specialists to provide physical security measures. However, in the modern landscape, online threats require digital activity to protect executives. Executive protection teams now involve digital specialists who spend time online assessing and minimizing threats to VIPs.

Emerging Event and Travel Risk

Executives are at increased risk when they are traveling and in locations that they do not usually frequent. High-profile individuals who travel frequently are at heightened risk of interacting with dangerous situations that could jeopardize their safety or make their destination unsafe, including; civil unrest, extreme weather, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and criminal activity. 

Physical Threats

The digital environment provides a space for anonymous individuals to make violent threats towards people and businesses. Executives, particularly celebrities and CEOs of large companies, may receive thousands of threats over social media and messaging services every year, particularly after making controversial decisions or statements.

Doxxing

Doxxing involves threat actors publically exposing private information about people or businesses from the internet, often collected from social media and data breaches. Doxxing presents a very serious risk to executives as information released via doxxing can facilitate threats, violence, and harassment aimed at them and their families.

Misinformation

Threats to executives are not always physical. Threat actors can cause large-scale damage to an executive's reputation through digital means, using social media accounts that mirror the executive’s to use their reputation to spread rumors or spread misinformation. Spreading false or misleading information digitally through mirrored social media accounts could be to influence politics or to scam members of the public, however, the impact on the executive is always damaging to their reputation and usually results in a negative impact on society.