Online Exposure: How Executives’ Digital Information Exposes Them to Physical Risks

The executives of a firm embedded in the Netherlands’ critical infrastructure, who regularly face various threats in their role as directors.

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Our society is increasingly dealing with significant geopolitical threats from state actors, as well as a rise in organised crime and activism. This trend is leading to directors of companies in critical sectors, such as energy firms, facing rising threats of online blackmail and intimidation. The perceived anonymity of the digital world emboldens malicious actors, who believe they can operate without consequence. Using publicly available information from open or semi-open sources, these individuals engage in intimidation, blackmail, and extortion under the cover of the digital realm.  

Several of our clients have experienced this firsthand. Having received several anonymous threats, our client became concerned about their and their families' safety. How far could these threats escalate? What kind of sensitive information could malicious actors uncover online that could be used to intimidate or blackmail them?

The perceived anonymity of the digital world emboldens malicious actors, who believe they can operate without consequence. Using publicly available information [...] these individuals engage in intimidation, blackmail, and extortion under the cover of the digital realm.  

Our trained open-source analysts thoroughly investigated all publicly available and semi-public sources, including the deep and dark web, to map out the executives’ entire online footprints. The primary focus was identifying sensitive information, such as home addresses, personal interests, leaked passwords, and details about family members like spouses and children. Malicious actors can exploit this kind of information to apply pressure on their targets.  

To help our client understand how this information could be discovered, our team presented the findings in a roadmap during a briefing. Instead of simply listing the exposed data, the roadmap illustrated the paths that led to the sensitive information, giving our client a clear view of how these vulnerabilities could be closed off, making the data inaccessible to potentially malicious actors.

[Our] roadmap illustrated the paths that led to the sensitive information, giving our client a clear view of how these vulnerabilities could be closed off, making the data inaccessible to potentially malicious actors.

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Our presentation gave our client a comprehensive understanding of the information available about them online, as well as the various steps a malicious actor might take to access it – some of which were not immediately obvious. With this knowledge, the executive was able to remove some information or, in cases where deletion was not possible, significantly obstruct the paths leading to it. As a result, the likelihood of a bad actor gaining access to this sensitive data was greatly reduced.

Has this Impact Study sparked your interest? Are you curious to see how we can help you limit your online vulnerabilities? Do not hesitate to contact us via info@proximities.com, we will be happy to support you.