12/10/2024

What Companies Should Be Asking Their Security Teams Right Now

The murder of a UnitedHealthcare CEO has organizations on edge

The shocking killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4 has corporate boards and executives asking hard questions of their security teams.

Workplace violence driven by disgruntled employees or job-site disputes is unfortunately too common in the United States. Deliberate targeting of CEOs for assassination, however, is relatively rare. In the 1970s, ideologically driven groups, including Italy’s Red Brigades and Germany’s Bader Meinhof Gang, perpetuated kidnappings and killings of business executives. Corporate leaders today are more likely to see shareholder meetings disrupted by extremist groups with tactics designed to produce outrage and publicity, not casualties.

But in a year of febrile politics, rising popular frustration with institutions, and two separate alleged attempts to assassinate Donald Trump, the risks to executives in just about any industry cannot be minimized. The presence of an estimated more than 400 million firearms in the United States, combined with easy access to personal location data, schedules and life patterns only adds to the danger.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.