5 ways intelligence professionals support threat management

In today’s world, organizations operate in increasingly complex environments with potential threats to their executives, employees, facilities, supply chains, and other assets popping up at unprecedented rates.

In 2024, countries across the globe experienced an increase in election-related unrest as dozens of nation-states went to the polls and some contended with unexpected electoral outcomes and sociopolitical tensions. These actions included mass protests in city centers and the temporary shutdowns of major airports and highways.

Additionally, the risk of attacks by organized terrorist groups and lone-wolf actors increased in Western Europe, the Middle East, and North America, with law enforcement agencies reporting their efforts to foil and deter dozens of plots, especially those that aimed to disrupt major events like the Paris Olympics and United States Elections.

In 2025, many of these trends are expected to continue, and companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government agencies alike will need to re-evaluate their security postures and threat management protocol to stay ahead of the curve.

The Corporate Security Approach to Threat Management

When it comes to corporate security, it’s best practice for organizations to take a proactive approach to threat management. Effective programs should involve key security professionals and non-security collaborators from across the business. Collaborative structures can include IT and cybersecurity teams, risk intelligence analysts, physical security personnel, legal, and public relations teams.

To build robust threat detection, assessment, and mitigation protocols and get ahead of potential crises, diverse stakeholders can work together to leverage technology, intelligence and data, as well as orchestrate strategic planning sessions and employee awareness and training efforts.

While threat management within the corporate security structure has become largely synonymous with the work of cybersecurity and IT teams, especially in today’s increasingly digital world, human intelligence professionals play a vital role in pre-empting, managing, and mitigating physical threats to an organization. The value of intelligence teams should not be overlooked as companies seek to invest in and bolster their threat management capabilities.

Why Intelligence Professionals Are an Asset for Threat Management Programs

Intelligence professionals are trained analysts who have a deep understanding of geopolitical and security dynamics across the globe. They often have knowledge of several languages, a granular understanding of the media and social media environment across the countries they research, and are comfortable using and adapting new technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), to assess the potential risks and threats to their organization and within ever-changing operational environments.

Because of this broad skillset, intelligence analysts are uniquely placed within an organization’s corporate security structure to support threat management and mitigation efforts at every stage. From detecting and evaluating potential physical threats, determining the organization’s risk tolerance in a given location, and understanding what broader geopolitical elements could impact tomorrow’s business environment, intelligence analysts provide a strategic advantage to company decision makers navigating complex physical security situations.

Five Ways Intelligence Professionals Contribute to Effective Threat Management

Effective threat management programs are built around five main pillars: preparedness, detection and assessment, mitigation and control, response, and prevention. Intelligence professionals can bring added value to each stage, working alongside physical security agents, IT teams, and other collaborators to ensure threat management programs are comprehensive and robust.

1. Preparedness: Scenario Planning and Horizon Scanning

As part of threat management protocols, it is essential that organizations prioritize preparedness and work to anticipate future threats to leadership, employees, and other critical assets. Intelligence analysts draw on their historical and location-specific knowledge, data archives, and geopolitical expertise to build scenarios around potential threats an organization may face in the near, medium, and distant future.

The practice of scenario planning and horizon scanning for future threats and threat actors can include building broad scenarios around upcoming events such as an election in a given country, and modeling how the potential outcomes can impact an organization and its people at a more granular level.

The value of intelligence teams should not be overlooked as companies seek to invest in and bolster their threat management capabilities.

Analysts also build forecasts and models around the likelihood of specific incidents impacting their organization directly, such as attempts by malicious actors to attack facilities or employees in a major city. Based on these scenarios and their conditions, analysts collaborate with corporate security counterparts to determine threat mitigation and response criteria.

2. Detection and Assessment: Threat Intelligence and Monitoring

The work of intelligence analysts is integral for timely threat detection and accurate severity assessments to ensure organizations stay abreast of potential threats in their operational environment. Analysts use open-source data collection techniques, online and social media monitoring, and will often communicate with local sources and law enforcement agencies to gather information about a wide array of potential threats.

Threats can include operations by organized criminal groups, activists planning disruptive demonstrations, actions by political groups, or active shooter incidents that could have a direct or indirect impact on their organization. Analysts conduct their research, source collection, and prioritize information for assessments using various online tools and risk intelligence technologies, some of which automate collection and reporting using machine learning and generative AI models.

3. Mitigation and Control: Vulnerability Management and Strategic Planning

Not only are intelligence analysts well suited to monitor and assess the severity of potential threats to their organization, they can also take proactive steps to mitigate and reduce the likelihood of threats impacting human or physical assets.

While online monitoring and data collection are critical to understand the active digital and physical threat landscape, analysts can also work with their information security and IT counterparts to report and remove malicious content from online platforms or websites that could cause future physical, financial, or reputational harm to their organization or colleagues.

Additionally, intelligence teams often liaise with local government or law enforcement agencies to investigate, deter, and in some cases take legal action against malicious individuals or groups who are attempting to target an organization. Analysts can play a critical role in building preparedness plans based on past threat mitigation efforts and writing memos and training documents to communicate crisis protocol to executives and colleagues.

4. Response: Crisis Reporting and Advisory

In the event an organization is impacted by nearby threats or targeted directly, intelligence analysts support the corporate security response by issuing real-time reports and providing advisory services to decision makers who are responsible for the organization’s internal and external communications, response, and reputation. Crisis reporting, which leverages analysts’ geopolitical expertise and timely information gathering skills, can be especially impactful for managing travel security issues, executive protection efforts, or event security.

5. Prevention: After-Action Assessments

Effective intelligence teams are introspective and continuously work to revise, rethink and improve their practices for the future. When it comes to threat management, intelligence analysts are key contributors to after-action assessments.

During this process, teams can focus on evaluating sources used for online and physical threat monitoring, adjust policies and advisory criteria, and revise strategic plans based on program strengths and weaknesses. The entire corporate security function should come together for post-action assessments to evaluate cohesion across stakeholders, effective communication strategies, and important lessons for future engagements.

Overall, as organizations continue to revamp their corporate security functions and dedicate additional resources to contend with the ever-evolving threat landscape, the value that human intelligence professionals bring to improving threat management strategies and building resilient security postures cannot be overstated.