Senior Executives of high-profile companies have jobs that come with their fair share of stress and anxiety. Now add onto this those unspoken threats that the general public usually don’t know about, only when it hits the headlines. CEOs face constant danger. From kidnapping attempts to cyberattacks. It is therefore imperative to note that quite a handsome sum of money is allocated by companies each year specifically to help mitigate these situations.
Validating an existing threat
U.S. companies are spending record amounts to keep their executives safe in response to rising threats and the killings of two high-profile corporate officials in separate attacks in Manhattan over the last eight months. Corporations have doubled the number of plain-clothed security teams outside buildings in New York City since a shooting last week in which four people were killed, said Glen Kucera, president of the enhanced protection services unit at Allied Universal, a security and facilities services firm.
Allied Universal has been in existence for the better part of 9 years. The service area that the firm covers is quite extensive, and includes Mexico, Canada, the US, the UK, Nicaragua, as well as Honduras. Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner’s death shook Wall Street, even though authorities believe her killing was a random event. Police said the shooter was targeting the headquarters of the National Football League, which is housed in the same building in the Midtown area of Manhattan where LePatner worked.
A big burden to carry by the Executive
The shooter also killed a New York City police officer, a building security guard, and an employee at real estate company Rudin before turning the gun on himself. Threats against executives “have massively ramped up since 2020,” said Chris Pierson, the CEO of cybersecurity firm BlackCloak. He noted how the man charged with murdering a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband near Minneapolis in June allegedly kept a target list of mostly other politicians and used online people-search services to find their addresses.
Ben Joelson, head of security risk and resilience for the Chertoff Group, a security advisory firm, said threats against executives are higher than at any time in the decade he has worked in the field, with social media posts magnifying complaints against institutional leaders. Artificial intelligence is compounding the problem, leading to an “exponential rise” in realistic phishing attempts, Joelson was cited as saying in a report by research firm Equilar.
Setting security as the baseline for any firm
When UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death in New York in December, it seemed to be a very rare “black swan event,” Joelson told Reuters in an interview. But targeted attacks have continued, including the killings in Minnesota and the shooting deaths of two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington in May. “It’s increasingly acceptable for some bad actors or adversaries to address grievances through violence,” which has led many companies to put a new focus on security, Joelson said.
Security spending includes surveillance and alarm systems for executives’ homes, personal guards, and cybersecurity protections. Equilar analysts said the trend is likely to continue as firms grapple with the growing threats to their executives and employees. There are, however, various factors that influence the overall cost of CEO security. This includes things such as the company size and profile. Larger companies that have a higher public profile will put in a bigger investment into their CCEO security.
The monetary spending on these matters is crucial, but a more holistic approach to the situation seems to be the better course of action here. Matters that are usually taken into consideration are employee background checks, especially for those employees in relatively close contact with the CEO. A proper crisis management plan for when these types of incidents do occur. And then also, cybersecurity. This is a crucial inclusion, very relevant in the current digital age.
GCN.com/REUTERS.
