Executive targeting reached its highest recorded level in 2025. The Security Executive Council (SEC), working with Mercyhurst University, has published an analysis of 424 open-source incidents against private-sector executives spanning 2003 to late 2025 — and by the end of October, 2025's volume had already doubled the whole of 2024. The findings were considered serious enough that a report historically restricted to corporate clients was released publicly.
The detail matters more than the headline. CEOs still draw the majority of incidents — around 64% — but the dataset shows attacks spreading across the senior leadership tier, with technology and financial-sector executives most exposed. Targeting of female executives has climbed sharply since 2021 and hit a record in 2025.
This is overwhelmingly a physical problem. Some 85% of documented incidents involved physical activity — assault, stalking, kidnapping, protest action — and roughly a third ended in injury or death. Weapons featured in 37% of cases; firearms were present or suspected in 22%. Activism and crime were the two leading motives, together accounting for close to three-quarters of incidents. Personal-grievance cases were rarer but carried the highest likelihood of weapon involvement.
Location data points the same way: incidents are increasingly occurring at workplaces, residences and public events.
Three takeaways for operators. First, principal lists scoped around the CEO alone are out of date — the threat picture now reaches the wider executive tier, particularly in finance and tech. Second, residence and venue coverage deserves the budget conversation that travel security has traditionally won. Third, early warning lives in the online-to-offline pathway: SEC's managing director describes the detection challenge as finding the needle in a haystack of online communications, which argues for structured monitoring over ad-hoc checks.
One caveat. The dataset is built from open-source reporting, so it almost certainly undercounts — incidents resolved quietly never make the tally. Treat these figures as a floor.
