Tech Trends: The Fallout from Brian Thompson’s Murder
The security community has been abuzz since the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Horrible and tragic, it has also caused many large companies to re-evaluate their executive protection or simply evaluate for the first time the need for executive protection. While many C-Suite members had felt relatively safe, the senseless killing has challenged that thinking.
Some tech trends are based on cool technologies challenging and changing the status quo of the security industry; others are realized by how many requests for technology to solve a certain problem come across my desk. This tech trend is based on the latter. Over the past couple of months, I’ve had many conversations focused on the use-case of technologies for protecting high-value targets.
If protecting high-value targets is the goal, what should companies be looking for? To start with, while it is not technology-related, the job market for executive protection (EP) or close protection service providers (referred to as agents, specialists, officers, and more) just went through the roof in almost every vertical. Hopefully, this means a majority of companies are taking executive protection seriously and are building a program to support it – not just to throw bodies at a problem in the short term.
The problem is not just short-term, though. According to the 2024 TorchStone Global Executive Protection Report, the security firm recorded 462 incidents threatening high-profile individuals due to their status – an average of 39 incidents per month – in 2024 (read more at www.torchstoneglobal.com/executive-protection-report-annual-2024).
Technology Solutions
The tech trends have expanded to encompass the need for real-time information on employees outside the secured perimeter of a company building or secured space. This could be executives or employees traveling either domestically or abroad – even for a lunch meeting across town. Security operations centers are leveraging new technologies to provide this awareness – moving beyond just weather alerts and hostile environment mass notifications (although it still involves many of those pieces).
Mobile-ready communication solutions: Executives and remote workers alike have technologies such as device tracking, GPS location, panic buttons, wearable Bluetooth tech, and other security-related applications directly on their mobile devices; however, these technologies have seen slow adoption by both executives and remote workers. Admittedly, pressing a panic button will not disrupt a would-be attacker, though some include audible deterrents.
Real-time monitoring: Panic button communication is just one application where real-time monitoring software can alert a trained operator to a situation. Depending on the use-case, different panic buttons or end-point devices could be handled by a different type of operator – for example, a door alarm could be handled by a security operations center operator, but a personnel alarm (i.e., panic button) would be handled by an executive protection specialist.
The need for real-time monitoring platforms exists for many companies outside of panic buttons. Inherently, with most traditional access control and camera systems, there are delays. Third-party integrations and mobile device alerting mean the delay is built into the system. System delays prevent the technologies from sending an alarm when needed, and monitoring delays can be caused by an overload of alarms, staffing shortages, and the ability to communicate quickly in the event of an alarm. Real-time monitoring platforms consolidate and remove those delays.
Biometric technologies: EP agents often keep stalker lists and threat files on known bad actors. Despite privacy and other concerns, EP teams have been using facial recognition biometric technologies since their inception, moving them past mugshots and field interview photos.
Recently, a couple of Harvard college students documented how they used Meta Smart Glasses to live-stream video to facial recognition software. Using public, open-source databases, the software could identify faces to provide additional data such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and more.
EP agents have been using IP cameras mounted on vehicles to identify bad actors for a while, but being able to potentially use smart glasses goes even further to make the technology mobile for protection agents. While facial recognition using smart glasses is still quite a ways from being commercially available, the students proved the tech is already here. So if you see an EP agent wearing a new pair of Ray Bans, you may just be on camera.
Though the murder of Brian Thompson was cold, calculated, and ultimately futile to the killer’s manifesto, it has challenged companies to implement protection for their executives and remote workers. Hopefully, some good can come from the tragedy. The security industry has an opportunity to partner with companies looking to increase these protections for their employees.
