The murder of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson – and the torrent of hostility directed at the health insurance industry on social media and other public platforms in the aftermath of the killing – are serious signs of intensifying cyber and physical threats facing C-suites and boards in healthcare and many other sectors, says Chris Pierson, founder and CEO of BlackCloak.
“The level of hatred has risen out of control,” he said in an interview with Information Security Media Group. And the leadership of companies are where much of the vitriol is being targeted, he said (see: CEO’s Murder Sparks Outcry Over UHC’s Coverage Denials).
“They’re getting death threats. They’re getting emails being sent to them. They’re getting text message sent to their phone. They’re being doxxed. Their personal information is being put out there and their families are being targeted too,” he said.
“I think with some industries there’s much greater trigger factors. In healthcare, it’s about you or your body, or your health or loved ones,” he said. But executives in other hot-button industries – such as airlines during holiday travel season – are also prime targets of rising threats, he said.
“And really there are two different aspects to this. There’s the physical side, and there’s the digital side. There’s a convergence between the two, and there are causal implications between the two,” he said.
Cybersecurity and physical security teams – including the CISO and chief security officer – should be working together “immediately, right now,” he said.
For instance, the CISO and CSO need to work collaboratively “to mitigate and really minimize those different digital breadcrumbs” that are left about the whereabouts and other details involving executives who are both potential cyber and physical targets, he said.
“There are different steps that can be taken to lessen their digital footprint and their digital breadcrumbs,” he said.
“It’s a new day in terms of the risk level that we’ve now seen. The inherent risk of physical attacks on executives has risen at a massively high level,” he said.
The tragic assassination on Wednesday of Thompson was “a well-planned, well-coordinated attack,” Pierson said. “We’ve never seen anything like this within the U.S.”
In this audio interview with Information Security Media Group (see audio link below photo), Pierson also discusses:
- Why taking down executive leadership pages from corporate websites is not necessarily the most effective way to protect individuals from highly motivated threat actors;
- The critical importance of conducting an executive threat assessment and taking other important actions in today’s increasingly hostile climate;
- Digital executive protection considerations involving insider threats, such as disgruntled employees.
With more than 25 years of experience, Pierson leads the strategic vision and mission at BlackCloak. He is a distinguished fellow of the Ponemon Institute and has worked as a special government employee at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security privacy and cybersecurity committees.