In this blog, Christian West and Martin Nielsen examine the growing risks associated with mail-borne chemical and explosive attacks – and how executive protection programs can now mitigate these risks for organizations and family residences with the help of new screening technology.

We all have biases. We demonstrate this whenever we show an implicit, often unspoken tendency for or against someone or something. For better and for worse, biases are baked into our social, psychological, and cognitive evolution as human beings. Our pattern-seeking brains are hardwired to make predictions, and biases make life quicker and easier to predict. Of course, even protective intelligence analysts are prone to biases; it can’t be helped. But we can help ourselves – and those who consume the intelligence that we produce – by recognizing our biases and doing our best to mitigate them.

When people think about the risks that executive protection helps mitigate, they quickly conjure up images of threats they have seen in the media. Home invasions, pushy paparazzi, kidnappings, and public attacks all come to mind. And of course, these are all threats that executive protection professionals and their clients must take seriously. With this blog we examine some lesser-known threats and vulnerabilities, so EP clients and practitioners can consider them as they plan and implement comprehensive protection programs. Even if you’re not in the executive protection industry, awareness of these threats and vulnerabilities is the first step towards mitigating them.