Active Threat

CASE STUDY #217

The son of a one couple’s client leaves an ominous message

FAMILY’S CHALLENGE

A member of Paladin’s network referred two friends of theirs to the firm. This couple became concerned when their client’s son left a threatening voicemail on their phone. Their immediate fear was for their own safety, but they also wanted to determine how he had gotten their private home number in the first place and what other sensitive information might be available to strangers on the internet.

PALADIN’S SOLUTION

Paladin immediately took action on several fronts. First, we conducted a background due diligence investigation on the subject and discovered that he had a significant criminal history and was prone to violence. It was clear that the nature of the threat was concentrated on an upcoming business trip to address an issue of concern to the individual. While our clients left to attend this key meeting, Paladin set up 24-hour surveillance of the subject to ensure he did not leave the area.

Concurrently, we completed a detailed risk assessment of the couple’s information available on the internet, including their professional website. We then showed the clients where and how this individual had uncovered their home number and how to remove or hide this and other information from further exploitation. Finally, we uncovered several opportunities to remove or mitigate sensitive information we uncovered. Our final report highlighted our findings, detailed our mitigation activities, identified pending items, and clarified which information could not be removed.

VALUE TO THE FAMILY

Our client completed their business meeting without incident and with peace of mind. The nature of the threat dissipated up on their return, but they proactively implemented – or had us oversee implementation – of all key findings and recommendations in our assessment report. In sum, Paladin was responsible for reviewing 120+ search engines and online databases and removing this client’s information in every instance possible.

The Project Manager’s Thoughts on this Engagement

“At several critical points during this incident, the outcome could have been very different. At each juncture, we work with clients to understand their risks and options as well as the consequence of decisions.

In this case, we were prepared to liaise with local law enforcement – and potentially members of the subject’s own family and friends to set up a “circle of communication” around the person in accordance with a methodology used to protect the U.S. president.

Happily, enhanced measures like these were not needed in this matter.”