Beyond the C-Suite: Digital Hygiene for High-Profile Individuals

In an era of constant connectivity, digital vulnerability isn’t limited to corporate executives. Any individual with a public profile faces similar – and sometimes even greater – digital exposure risks. Our newly published Executive Protection Digital Hygiene Playbook provides critical strategies that apply across numerous high-profile categories.

How Public Visibility Expands Digital Exposure

While traditionally framed as “Executive Protection,” digital hygiene has become essential for anyone with public visibility. The alarming statistics that 98% of executives have property information visible online and 100% have experienced breached email data represent a broader pattern affecting various public figures:

• Politicians and Government Officials: Targeted for their influence on policy and public opinion
• Professional Athletes: Whose whereabouts, family details, and financial information create vulnerability
• Media Personalities: News anchors and commentators who face threats from those who disagree with their perspectives
• Celebrities and Influencers: Who often inadvertently share location data and personal details through social media
• High-Net-Worth Individuals: Whose financial status makes them targets regardless of public profile

How Digital Exposure Creates Risk for All Public Figures

The digital vulnerability landscape presents remarkably similar challenges across these categories:

• Family Member Exposure: Nisos research shows 30% of executives’ family members publicly share geolocation and pattern-of-life information, creating security vulnerabilities, and this pattern is likely to apply across many public professions
• AI-Powered Threats: All public figures face sophisticated attacks including voice cloning, personalized phishing attempts, and automated surveillance
• Cross-Platform Vulnerabilities: Digital footprints span data brokers, public records, social media, and dark web sources that affect athletes, celebrities, and executives equally

A Real-World Example: Pro-Athletes Targeted Through Public Exposure

A recent FBI warning highlighted a string of burglaries targeting the homes of professional athletes from both the NFL and NBA, where organized thieves exploited social media activity and publicly available information to plan and execute thefts. As reported by ASIS Online, criminals used details gleaned from athletes’ posts and digital presence, including travel notifications, public whereabouts, and lifestyle cues, to ascertain when players were away from home and time their strikes. The FBI cautioned that this trend is not random but indicative of how threat actors correlate digital exposure with physical targets. Seven men have since been charged, according to the New York Times.

This example illustrates an increasingly common phenomenon: digital visibility can create physical risk – whether through direct oversharing, insufficient privacy settings, or unmitigated digital footprints across platforms.

Implementing Digital Hygiene Beyond the Boardroom

The comprehensive approach outlined in our Digital Hygiene Playbook applies universally to high-profile individuals:

• Digital Footprint Assessment: Identifying exposed personal information across platforms
• Strategic PII Management: Prioritizing removal of the most sensitive information
• Continuous Monitoring: Addressing the reality that removed information often reappears
• Family Protection: Extending digital hygiene strategies to family members whose information creates indirect exposure

The Path Forward for All High-Profile Individuals

Whether you’re responsible for protecting corporate executives, professional athletes, political figures, entertainment personalities, or high-net-worth individuals, implementing effective digital hygiene protocols requires specialized expertise and consistent execution.

The Digital Hygiene Playbook provides a framework applicable to any high-profile individual, offering:

• A comprehensive assessment methodology
• Implementation considerations for resource allocation and authentication challenges
• Solutions to common roadblocks in digital hygiene programs
• A practical roadmap for establishing effective digital protection

Applying Digital Hygiene Across High-Profile Roles

Digital exposure creates vulnerabilities that transcend professional categories. Download our Executive Protection Digital Hygiene Playbook to learn how these critical strategies can protect high-profile individuals across all sectors from emerging digital threats.