Using OSINT for Employee Protection at Insurance Carriers

Security threats against insurance professionals are escalating, putting employees at risk both online and in the real world. Disgruntled claimants, former employees, and opportunistic bad actors can pose significant risks to executives, claims adjusters, and other personnel. As insurers seek to safeguard their workforce and ensure the smooth operation of their organizations, they need ways to identify and understand potential threats and risks to their people. 

OSINT offers an opportunity to collect publicly available information from across the internet to help teams detect, analyze, and mitigate potential threats before they escalate into physical harm or reputational damage.

The Growing Security Challenges

Insurance companies are increasingly encountering security threats that range from online harassment to in-person violence. Key threats include:

• Threats to Executives – High-profile executives can be targeted by disgruntled claimants who feel wronged by the insurance carrier’s decision or threat actors aggrieved with the industry.
• Claims Adjuster Risks – Field adjusters, who visit claim sites and customers in person, are particularly vulnerable to hostility from claimants dissatisfied with claim outcomes.
• Resentful Former Employees – Ex-employees seeking retribution may pose a direct risk to offices, personnel, or company infrastructure.

To address these challenges and protect executives and key personnel, insurers must integrate a proactive, intelligence-driven approach that identifies risks in real time. Automated OSINT solutions provide an effective way to accomplish this goal by assessing publicly available information to rapidly assess threats.

OSINT’s Role in Employee Protection

OSINT tools provide insurance carriers with enhanced situational awareness and investigation potential, helping them detect, analyze, and mitigate threats. These tools can be applied in various ways, including:

1. Flagging Online Threats Against Employees

Insurers can scan social media, forums, and other online platforms to detect threatening language aimed at executives, adjusters, or other employees. Automated keyword search and sentiment analysis can flag individuals expressing violent intent toward people or the business itself, allowing security teams to respond appropriately.

2. Pre-Visit Risk Assessments for Claims Adjusters

Claims handlers often travel to meet clients. While this is a regular part of their roles, it also exposes them to heightened risks. Before visiting a claimant’s residence or business, insurers can use OSINT techniques to conduct due diligence in advance. This includes reviewing:

• The claimant’s criminal records
• Any history of violent threats on social media
• Known affiliations with extremist groups
• Crime trends in the area of the visit

By identifying potential risks beforehand, insurance companies can take precautionary measures, such as sending additional security personnel or avoiding high-risk site visits altogether.

3. Threat Actor Investigations

Threats made online can directly impact the physical security of key personnel. Automated OSINT platforms enable insurers to conduct full-scale investigations into individuals who have made direct threats. Security teams can leverage these tools to collect and synthesize actionable insights and generate reports on individuals or businesses that may pose a risk. By processing collected data for relevant keywords and images, teams can quickly identify and flag high-risk behaviors, such as threatening posts or photos featuring weapons. 

Additionally, teams can assess co-residents and social media contacts to map relationships between individuals and understand any connections that might post an additional threat, such as links to an employee or other disgruntled claimants.

4. Crisis Management and Sentiment Analysis

In the aftermath of high-impact events, such as wildfires, hurricanes, or mass claims incidents, carriers often face a surge in negative sentiment, often tied to claims decisions. OSINT solutions can help insiders assess claimant sentiment across social media platforms, detecting growing frustrations and determining when they might escalate into threats against employees.

5. Flagging Disgruntled Former Employees

OSINT provides a methodology to determine when disgruntled former employees may pose a security risk. By scanning social chatter for keywords related to previous employment and frustrations, insurers can identify red flags such as:

• Threatening posts targeting the company or its employees
• Attempts to doxx (leak private information about) executives or staff
• Discussions of violent retaliation in online communities

6. Understanding the Risk of Breach Data

Personally identifiable information previously exposed in a data breach can lead to physical risks for employees at insurers. A carrier’s key personnel may be targeted for their personal data, with threat actors seeking to find home addresses, family details, or vehicle information, which can lead to harassment, physical threats, or other damage. With this information, threat actors can locate the employee’s home or car, increasing their vulnerability to physical harm. Security teams must act quickly to identify and, if possible, remove exposed data. 

The OSINT Toolkit for Insurance Carriers

A comprehensive OSINT approach requires multiple tools and capabilities:

• Situational Awareness: Real-time scanning of social media, message boards, news, and crime data to detect potential threats
• C-Suite Risk Assessment: Flagging negative sentiment to executives or the company brand across digital platforms to detect threats or misinformation
• Claims Handler Protection: Identifying online threats directed at field adjusters before they visit claimants
• Personal Threat Assessment: Detecting potential exposure of employee information through data breaches and doxxing attempts
• Threat Actor Research: Conducting digital investigations on individuals exhibiting concerning behaviors
• Crisis Management: Identifying emerging threats in the wake of natural disasters or mass claims events

A Modern Approach to Executive Protection in the Insurance Industry

The increasing risks faced by insurance employees, whether from claimants, former employees, or other bad actors, demand attention from decision-makers. By implementing an integrated OSINT platform like Skopenow’s, major insurance carriers have enhanced their security posture by detecting threats early, safeguarding employees, and ensuring business continuity in an increasingly unpredictable environment.

Join over 1,500 organizations, including 75+ leading insurance carriers, that rely on Skopenow's automated OSINT platform to automatically collect and process relevant publicly available information to make better decisions and keep people safe. For more details on how Skopenow can help support your employee protection efforts, get in touch with our team to learn more at www.skopenow.com/try.