Flashpoint, a leader in threat data and intelligence, released a report this week meant to help security teams stay ahead of emerging threats such as doxxing, swatting, misinformation, and geopolitical targeting.
The Complete Guide to OSINT for Executive Protection is a resource for security professionals, executive protection teams, and corporate risk leaders. It was established to help teams and leaders strengthen protection strategies by offering practical strategies and real-world insights into leveraging open-source intelligence (OSINT).
The guide can help users identify and assess modern executive threats, implement proactive security measures based on best practices and real-world examples to mitigate risks, and leverage AI-driven OSINT tools for real-time threat analysis.
What is OSINT?
According to the SANS Institute, OSINT is “intelligence produced by collecting, evaluating, and analyzing publicly available information with the purpose of answering a specific intelligence question.”
For OSINT, information does not necessarily mean intelligence, and giving meaning to the collected data is essential. Without meaning, open-source findings are considered raw data.
Examples of sources where OSINT can be found include public records, news media, libraries, social media platforms, images and videos, websites, and the dark web.
While many organizations use OSINT as a cybersecurity tool to help them gauge security risks and identify vulnerabilities in their IT systems, cybercriminals and hackers also use it for social engineering, phishing, and exposing targets for cyberattacks.
The Complete Guide to OSINT for Executive Protection
OSINT can be a critical tool for security teams as cyber threats increase in number and become more sophisticated in execution. Using this information, security teams can detect early warning signs, monitor online sentiment, and neutralize risks before they become physical threats.
According to Flashpoint, security teams can develop key strategies and use OSINT by:
- Identifying and assessing the full range of modern executive threats: The guide explains how digital threats like doxxing, deepfakes, and online harassment can converge and influence real-world physical harm. It also discusses how geopolitical tensions and reputational risks further complicate executive protection.
- Implementing proactive security measures based on best practices and real-world examples: Teams can uncover best practices on filtering noise, removing sensitive information online, or setting up targeted threat alerts.
- Enhancing their OSINT toolkit: Discover how real-time social media intelligence, diverse open sources, geospatial data, and AI-powered analysis can detect threats, identify threat actors, monitor sentiment, and transform raw data into actionable intelligence.
Key insights from the report include:
- Geopolitical tensions have corporate leaders in the crosshairs of threat actors, and intelligence reports are increasingly linking nation-state actors to targeted harassment and cyber-enabled attacks on executives.
- Over 36 percent of vulnerabilities disclosed in 2024 had known public exploits.
- AI-powered deepfakes are fueling a surge in fraud and reputational attacks, thus boosting the risks of financial scams, executive impersonation, and public outrage that can lead to real-world violence.
Shielding executives with a protection plan
Organizations should use OSINT to proactively monitor threats in real-time. Protecting data requires converting raw data into actionable insights.
Part of developing an executive protection plan for organizations, according to the guide, includes harnessing OSINT for proactive moves, including:
- Using real-time social media intelligence: Social media data has become a significant source of data for OSINT. The combination of social media content, geospatial data, and other real-time information can help inform protective measures for public and private sector executives.
- Detecting emerging threats before they escalate: Utilizing OSINT for executive protection can assist security teams with developing strategies that cut through the noise without overlooking relevant information. Having ongoing search strategies ensures security teams can gain advance knowledge of online threats before they’re fully realized.
- Integrating data from news outlets, forums, and the dark web: Flashpoint indicates that a robust OSINT strategy must include a broader range of data sources beyond social media. Threat actors utilize and exchange information on lesser-known forums and the dark web, and security teams should carefully review these sources.
- Mapping potential physical security risks: Along with protecting an executive’s digital footprint from deepfakes and other AI-generated threats, event organizers and security teams must be able to seamlessly map information collected online to the physical location itself to maintain executive security in the physical world. By monitoring a digital perimeter, teams can gather social media content originating from or mentioning a particular area, which is helpful for overseas travel or unfamiliar locations.
- Continuous adaptation and innovation: A key component of any protection strategy is for organizations to consider new threats and sources of information constantly. Effective executive protection requires security teams to access and monitor all popular online platforms before threat actors adopt them. Additionally, security teams should keep pace with the tools and techniques used by threat actors to harm targets.
“For security teams responsible for protecting executives, the task will only become more complex in the months and years to come,” Flashpoint states in their report. “As threat actors take advantage of emerging technologies– including the newfound scale enabled by AI– security teams must also invest in new tools to stay ahead of their adversaries.”
This new guide comes on the heels of Flashpoint’s recent ransomware survival guide, meant to equip businesses with actionable strategies to prevent attacks, respond swiftly, and ensure resilience. Read more about the steps the ebook highlights to manage and de-escalate ransomware activities.