Protecting a corporate executive or high-net-worth individual (HNWI) within the controlled environment of corporate headquarters or a private estate is logistically manageable. In such controlled environments, the security apparatus manages everything from access to infrastructure. But what happens when an executive or HNWI – otherwise known as a principal in security circles – steps into public spaces?
Protection becomes exponentially more complicated in airports, restaurants, and convention centers. But principals cannot be expected to avoid such places given their high-profile lifestyles. So security providers must deal with the reality that establishing a static perimeter is not going to happen. Likewise, highly conspicuous physical security measures will be difficult to pull off. What’s left? Intelligence-driven protection.
Trading Reaction for Prevention
Intelligence-driven protection’s greatest strength is its preventative posture. Intelligence data is gathered from open-source intelligence (OSINT) sources and other channels, then analyzed and contextualized to help analysts get a clear picture of potential threats and who might be behind them. With intelligence data in hand, security teams can work to prevent incidents rather than waiting for them to occur.
Waiting is traditional executive protection’s biggest weakness. Waiting is reactionary. It creates a defensive posture that requires placing physically imposing barriers within proximity to the principal. Whether those barriers are human guards, gates and fences, or even armored vehicles, security teams must assume that a threat is always imminent. Yet nothing can be done about a perceived threat until it emerges.
Intelligence-Driven Protection in Public Spaces
If you have never been exposed to intelligence-driven protection before, you might not understand its application to protecting principals in public spaces. After all, principals still need some level of physical protection when they roam outside the confines of their normally controlled environments.
Red5 Security, a provider of corporate protective intelligence services, explains that implementing an intelligence-driven program for public-space exposure demands a synchronized approach that links digital monitoring with on-the-ground operational execution. Implementation occurs through three distinct stages:
1. Advance Digital Reconnaissance
Intelligence-driven protection is proactive by nature. So in advance of a principal entering a public space, intelligence analysts create an informational baseline against which all future intelligence data pertaining to that incident will be measured. This baseline can be established hours, days, or weeks before the appearance.
Creating the baseline requires monitoring everything from local media chatter to dark web forums and activist communication channels. Analysts look for any mention of the principal, the event he or she will be attending, or any organizations the principal may be affiliated with. Analysts also track other pertinent metrics, including local crime trends and political unrest.
2. Advance Physical Prep
Digital reconnaissance directly informs the security provider’s advance team. That team can then assess the venue with an on-site visit. Team members will look at entryways, lines of sight, choke points, and anything else that could impact the principal’s safety. What they identify is used to establish how the on-the-ground security personnel will monitor and protect the principal during the appearance.
3. Real-Time Threat Triage
The third and final stage involves real-time threat triage from start to finish. It begins as the principal is transported to the event in question. It continues through the event and post-event transit back to a hotel, home, or headquarters. Throughout the entire period, analysts continue gathering intelligence information, analyzing it, and passing along actionable insights to the security team.
Red5 insists that if everything is done properly, physical security personnel and tactics can remain inconspicuous. Threats can be mitigated without alarm or drama. To me, that sounds like a better way to implement executive and HNWI protection.
