Why Business Leaders Must Prioritize Digital Privacy: A Real-World Warning

Lessons from the Brian Thompson tragedy

By now everyone’s familiar with the murder of Brian Thompson. He was the United Healthcare Group (UHG) CEO killed on December 4, 2024 in New York City, allegedly by Luigi Mangione. While details leading up to the murder are still evolving, it seems clear that Thompson was targeted. It wasn’t a random or spontaneous encounter. His killer put a lot of effort into choosing Thompson and then planning the crime.

Welcome to another issue of Secrets of Privacy where we discuss internet privacy related topics and provide practical tips to immediately enhance your privacy.

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Thompson was killed while attending UHG’s annual investors meeting. That timing is not coincidental. The annual UHG investors meeting is publicly advertised. As the CEO, Thompson was guaranteed to attend in person. The agenda and schedule of the meeting does not appear to be public, so his killer had to figure out the basic logistics of the event to find a way to track Thompson. More on this later.

Even with the details still being determined, this incident offers a clear warning to at-risk individuals. It underscores the importance of prioritizing security and privacy. Safeguarding your personal and digital privacy—not just as individuals, but as leaders in business, is critical.

We were talking to a friend in the private security industry the other day. Year end business is suddenly booming. His company placed around 40 new manned security details within 48 hours of Thompson’s murder. It was a mix of existing clients beefing up security for their senior execs and new clients that had delayed adding security for key employees. The Thompson killing has already spurred security improvements for high risk executives.

If you’re a high up exec with a moderate to high risk profile, there’s no time like the present to demand security and privacy assistance from your employer. Even if you can’t get a full manned security detail (or don’t need it), there are other steps you can take to make yourself a harder, less obvious target. Even something as simple as what CVS did, removing photos of their execs from their public website. There’s no reason other than ego to have your information public like that.

If corporate resources are not available, or you’re risk profile is lower than someone like Thompson, what are you to do?