The Evolving Landscape of Executive Protection

While governmental officials typically receive mandated security, that wasn’t the case in corporate circles. Business leaders often chose the terms of their own protection strategies. 

But the landscape of executive security has transformed in recent years, with corporate leaders forced to contend with increasingly complex and diverse threats.

In particular, the tragic death of UnitedHealthcare (UHC) CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024 served as a critical moment in the executive protection industry. It exposed vulnerabilities, required enterprises to re-evaluate their approach to protecting high-profile leaders, and catapulted executive protection onto boardroom agendas.

The current executive threat protection landscape

Today’s socio-political climate has created more threats for executives. Business leaders are increasingly expected to take public stances on heated—and sometimes controversial subjects—from social issues to environmental agendas and geopolitical events. Public affiliations with political or social movements can quickly draw backlash from organized groups or individuals. 

Corporations in industries with polarizing public perceptions, such as technology, healthcare, oil and gas, and financial services, are now reassessing risks not just for their leaders but also for their families. 

In addition, business executives are now increasingly vulnerable to a new wave of sophisticated cyber-physical threats. This is driven by the growing convergence of digital and physical worlds, where every piece of personal information shared online can become a weapon in the hands of adversaries. 

For instance, attackers often leverage leaked information (also known as doxxing) such as travel schedules, personal addresses and even family details to orchestrate real-world harm. Many executives’ personal identifiable information (PII) is sold on the dark web and exploited for impersonation, financial fraud and data theft.

Social media continues to be another key channel for potential threats. Many security teams now regularly keep track of posts, comments and images targeting their executives to mitigate reputational damage and address potential risks before escalation.

Modern threats require modern solutions

With the rise in online threats and physical security breaches, corporate security teams face a daunting amount of risks to monitor and manage. This calls for teams to re-evaluate their executive security strategy. 

Dataminr recommends four key strategies organizations should consider to strengthen their executive protection:

No. 1: Conduct comprehensive and ongoing threat assessments

Modern threat assessments should focus on understanding risks unique to industries, companies and individuals. These range from public perceptions to external narratives targeting the organization. An ongoing assessment process, rather than a static snapshot, ensures adaptive strategies in a continuously shifting landscape.

However, it’s incredibly difficult to maintain full visibility into the risk landscape due to the sheer volume of data—in different forms and across numerous platforms—generated every day. In fact, over 400 million terabytes of data are created, captured, copied, or consumed daily. Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) alone sees over 200 billion posts (formerly tweets) annually.

It’s clear that security teams need to employ sophisticated technology solutions to process this data in order to conduct effective risk assessments.

No. 2. Move from reaction to prevention

Protecting executives isn’t just about countering violent threats. The most likely risks stem from medical emergencies, travel accidents and severe weather. Ensuring contingency plans are in place for these scenarios is just as crucial as responding to direct attacks. At the same time, it’s important to maintain an adequate level of flexibility to adapt to emerging and unfolding threats. 

It’s also helpful to house playbooks for such scenarios—as well as other critical information like executives’ travel itineraries, hotel and work addresses, etc.—in a centralized digital platform that security teams and other key stakeholders can easily access. By creating this “single pane of glass” visibility, organizations can bridge gaps between on-the-ground security personnel, executive teams, and crisis management units, allowing them to collaborate and share information effectively in real time.

No. 3. Improve cooperation with public sector agencies

Coordinating with public sector agencies, such as law enforcement, has become integral to successful executive protection programs. From investigating threatening material uncovered online to providing on-site support during events, law enforcement partnerships expand the reach and effectiveness of corporate security measures.

While specific threats vary by industry, certain trends demand universal security preparation. Large-scale events such as conferences, industry summits and major sports competitions pose unique challenges that require pre-planning and coordination between public and private sector organizations. 

For instance, the World Economic Forum and Olympic Games come with heightened risks tied to global geopolitical dynamics. Adding politically exposed individuals or high-profile board members to these gatherings introduces further complexity. 

Therefore, it’s imperative that organizations adopt dynamic and forward-thinking protection strategies tailored to each context.

Download eBook: 3 Best Practices to Ensure Public Safety at Large-scale Events

No. 4. Leverage advanced AI technologies

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing threat detection by filtering immense data streams, recognizing patterns and identifying risks that human analysts can miss. From keyword searches on the deep and dark web to identifying disturbing imagery, AI enables security teams to identify threats before harm occurs. 

The most effective AI systems for executive protection must be able to process multiple languages and various content types, including text, audio, video, and imagery. They also need to be trained to recognize executive names and company identifiers, such as logos, while filtering out irrelevant mentions. 

Take for instance AI-powered solutions like Dataminr Pulse for Corporate Security. It delivers real-time insights and data-driven analytics to security teams, enabling them to identify early warnings of risks to executives near their: 

• homes
• workplaces 
• travel locations (both domestic and international), including transportation methods (like planes and trains) and accommodations (such as hotels)—before and during trips

When the shooting of UHC CEO Thompson occurred, Dataminr alerted its customers more than 30 minutes ahead of major news coverage, and continued to keep them informed in real time as the situation unfolded. This enabled customers to swiftly activate response plans to keep their executives safe, for example:

• Broadcasting company: Closely monitored the situation and updated—in real time—the executives attending its board meeting, which was located within six blocks of the incident. Its security team had begun to prepare for the possibility of a second shooting since the suspect had not yet been identified.
• Healthcare organization: Promptly reached out to its executives to confirm their whereabouts and ensure their safety.
• Financial services firm: Learned that the suspect had been in its building before the incident took place, and as such notified leadership and increased security around the building.

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The state of executive protection is undergoing a seismic shift. The rise in transparency, fueled by our digital world, has exposed unprecedented vulnerabilities facing business executives. However, embedded within these challenges is the opportunity to redefine security measures with cutting-edge tools, collaborative frameworks and a renewed focus on prevention.