According to the results a new study, just over 40% of security professionals say they expect to miss a larger chunk of security threats in 2022 due to an increase in both threat volume and frequency.
The “2022 State of Proactive Intelligence Report,” which was commissioned by the Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence, polled 359 respondents, including chief security officers, chief legal officers, chief compliance officers, general counsels, physical security directors, corporate attorneys, and physical security decision-makers at U.S. companies with over 5,000 employees across a wide range of sectors.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic forced many organizations to adopt remote or hybrid work paradigms, the vast majority of respondents (88%) reported that they have reopened offices and are encountering “significant conflicts” between management and employees regarding health and safety protocols as well as work-from-home policies.
Additionally, when asked what issues “keep them up at night,” increased physical threats and company backlash related to rising extremism, social and political issues (32%) as well as vaccination requirements (31%) were the two most prominent responses among those polled. These issues even ranked higher than preventing an active shooter event and the rise of physical security insider threats and activist whistleblowers, which were noted by 28% and 27% of respondents respectively.
Other key findings from the survey include:
- 88% agree, compared to the beginning of 2021, companies are experiencing a dramatic increase in physical threat activity.
- 85% agree the physical threat landscape has significantly changed and expanded, which has created an exponential increase in data and pre-incident indicators that will only grow and be unmanageable in 2022.
- In 2021, the lack of unified digital protective intelligence resulted in missed threats and physical harm to employees, customers and human assets for their company, 84% of respondents agreed, up from 71% in the prior year
- Among 18 physical security challenges in 2022 outlined, most likely to be listed among legal and compliance leaders:
○ Physical security threats to C-suite and company leadership (44%)
○ Data protection and privacy (41%)
- After employees were threatened or harmed by former employees or others while working remotely or at company facilities, respondents:
○ Notified HR, legal and security (43%)
○ Notified the local police and requested enhanced patrol coverages (40%)
○ Enhanced company security coverages for the employee both in the office and at their home (39%)
○ Enhanced intelligence collection around the threat (36%)
The top compliance, risk and regulation issues having an impact on physical security strategy include:
- Corporations have now become targets and can no longer rely on others for protection
○ (64% rank this as one of their top three compliance, risk, or regulation issues, from a list of five)
- Closing the gap between physical security solutions and compliance requirements.
○ (64% rank this as one of their top three compliance, risk, or regulation issues, from a list of five)
- Corporate activists are becoming insider threats
○ (62% rank this as one of their top three compliance, risk, or regulation issues, from a list of five)
- Increased personal liability for CEOs and C-level executives
○ (59% rank this as one of their top three compliance, risk, or regulation issues, from a list of five)
“The physical threat landscape has significantly changed and expanded, a majority of respondents agreed, which has created an exponential increase in data and pre-incident indicators that will only grow and be unmanageable in 2022,” said Fred Burton, Executive Director of the Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence. “But when it comes to approaches to employee preparedness to address threats and workplace violence, just over half cited their company believes training employees so they are better prepared for potential workplace violence will create a culture of fear, wants to take a reactive strategy and does not see the ultimate risk to business continuity by inaction.”
For more information or to download a copy of the report, click here.
