How Do Domestic Threats Impact Corporate Security Operations?

• Reactive efforts won’t suffice in today’s rapidly changing threat landscape. Proactive threat hunting is critical to protect people and assets. Threat assessments should be revisited in light of the new DHS alert, the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and on-going concern for more violence in America.
• The threat landscape is rapidly evolving, with an overwhelming influx of news alerts, headlines, and chatter around domestic extremists, further complicated by the pandemic. Let’s face it, it’s easy to tune out — threat fatigue can set-in and we are all tired of endless bad news. On top of this, it’s incredibly difficult to know how to react to a generalized threat advisory from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

What does this new threat alert mean for Corporate Security?

While government-issued domestic terrorism threats are valuable data to consume for awareness sake, they need to be placed in context to your existing operations, known threats, news profile, and geographic footprint. Thus, companies are encouraged to revisit their own baseline threat assessments as living documents and adjust accordingly, taking into account the current pandemic, domestic unrest, violent extremists, protest violence, and social justice issues.

The bottom line is that in our current threat landscape, corporate security officers would be well served by making threat hunting a priority. Why? As we witnessed on January 6, 2021 in the mob violence attack at the U.S. Capitol, the government has been overwhelmed with threats and on-going security concerns of protecting their high-value targets, elected officials, and the national security infrastructure. Therefore, companies should be proactively looking for adverse intelligence affecting their operations, business enterprise, and people.

How can companies take a proactive approach and prepare for domestic threats and attacks?

Here are some of our top resources to consider:

1. The Protector’s Guide to Establishing an Intelligence Baseline provides a framework for a professional baseline, or minimum standard, when gathering or sharing threat intelligence so that you aren’t working in the blind. This is an excellent guide to reference when building or re-evaluating your threat assessment program.
2. Ami Toben joined me for a podcast on Understanding the Hostile Planning Process to Establish a More Powerful Security Position, including how to isolate and target vulnerabilities in order to prevent them from getting to the execution phase.
3. Although many of us are not in corporate offices and working remotely, there are Implications of Domestic Violence for Corporate Security in the COVID-19 Era. This article provides actionable steps for corporate security teams to ensure the safety, security and success of their workforce at home.

At the Ontic Center of Protective Intelligence, we take great pride in sharing resources and valuable insights so companies can establish proper threat hunting measures in a way that gives them a sense of control in this very volatile environment. If there is a topic that we haven’t addressed already that would be helpful to your organization, we want to hear from you. Reach out at contact@ontic.ai.