High-risk individuals are people who face heightened risks affecting their personal safety and security. Threats may arise from the person’s role in the organization, or from their history, nationality, or political activities. They could be a focus for state-backed actors or terrorists, as well as from others with malicious intent. Activities targeting high-risk individuals include areas such as espionage, covert and overt influence (e.g. coercion), sanctions, and physical or psychological harm.
Organizations have a role in helping to manage the threats that high-risk individuals face and, to assist with this, the UK National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) has issued guidance for organizations. This is broken down into the following areas:
- Understand the problem
- Effective governance
- Corporate Obligations
- Engage with staff
- Develop mitigations
- Develop and Provide reporting mechanisms
- Regular review.
NPSA has also issued guidance aimed at high-risk individuals themselves.
