How to Safeguard Executives Through Proactive Planning and Managing Online Presence
In 2024 and 2025, a series of high-profile incidents, including the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, shed light on security vulnerabilities. This heightened risk environment prompted many organizations to take a closer look at their own security operations and make meaningful investments in physical protective measures for executives.
These events were a harsh reminder that organizations, no matter the industry, are vulnerable to threats. While the reexamination of physical protection is important for safeguarding executives, many are overlooking how frequently online exposure is used to identify, track, and target them.
Executives may be sharing far more information than they realize about themselves, as well as their whereabouts. For example, photos shared on social media could include sensitive information about a CEO’s location. Company bios or articles about upcoming events may seem harmless, but these communications can place executives in danger by sharing key information about their habits, movements, or vulnerabilities.
Proactive executive protection (EP) is essential today. Using an intelligence-led approach that evaluates risk early, builds layered defenses, and delivers protection in a way that allows leaders to continue doing their jobs is key.
Organizations can think about this work in three simple steps: assess, design and then deliver.
Step 1: Assess Your True Risk
The first step in effective EP means understanding whether a threat is a credible or if it is just noise. A valuable starting point is to evaluate if the person or group of interest possesses the access, opportunity, and means to carry out a harmful action.
Does the threat have proximity, whether physical or digital, to the executive? Is there evidence of planning or fixation? Without these types of elements present, the threats can be more of an expression of frustration as opposed to an indicator of danger.
This is where ability to filter through the digital noise becomes crucial, something that modern security tools and teams can help with. For instance, open-source intelligence (OSINT) monitoring and other similar structured tools can help distinguish credible threats from irrelevant chatter, while offering insight into online discussions about executives, their corporate decisions or vocal dissent from persons of interest or groups of interest. This type of analysis can reveal patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed, like repeated references to an executive’s travel schedule, personal routines, or family members.
Step 2: Design a Plan of Action
Once a credible threat is determined, organizations must develop a layered, adaptive plan tailored to both the protected individual and the specific threat — rather than checking off a security checklist. Protection is a complex situation that can’t be solved merely by hiring a protection agent. It requires a multi-angled approach. Physical security alone might respond to an incident after the fact, but it does little to prevent threats from emerging in the first place.
A more effective, proactive strategy emphasizes integrating protective intelligence, which includes digital risk management alongside physical safeguards. Organizations should carefully evaluate what information is publicly available about their executives, including personal details as well as travel-related content.
Small changes — such as delaying the release of travel-related content or limiting unnecessary personal details in bios — can help manage visibility and significantly reduce risk. Simultaneously, proactive monitoring is important, as threats evolve and new triggers evolve quickly. A robust plan is key for when conditions change.
Step 3: Deliver the Protection
EP is a very intimate service whose success depends on trust, yet it can be disruptive if not designed for sustainability.
A tailored protection plan must strike the balance: addressing credible threats while allowing executives to perform their roles effectively. Overly restrictive measures can undermine confidence and compliance, yet underestimating a risk can leaves leaders exposed.
Ultimately, EP is an ongoing process that requires communication, regular assessment as threats evolve, and proactive intelligence. Organizations that look beyond the obvious will be better positioned to safeguard their leaders and stay ahead of emerging threats and maintain operational agility.
