An executive protection OSINT checklist for year-end travel should give teams a clear, repeatable process: define the trip and the principal’s profile, map destination risks, monitor digital exposure, and establish live monitoring and escalation paths before, during, and after travel. The goal is to turn a noisy information environment into focused, actionable intelligence that actually changes routes, behaviors, and decisions.
Start by documenting the who, where, when, and why for each trip, as this shapes the entire OSINT effort. Capture traveler identity and role, public visibility, known adversaries or activists, family members travelling, and any recent media or litigation that could drive hostile interest. Map the itinerary in detail: flights, airports, FBOs (Fixed-Base Operators), hotels, venues, ground movements, and any public-facing appearances that could create predictable patterns.
From there, assign a risk rating by combining the executive’s attractiveness as a target with the inherent risk of each location. High-value principals or controversial leaders heading into unstable or high-crime regions should trigger deeper OSINT collection, stricter movement discipline, and more robust contingencies.
Use OSINT to build a concise destination threat brief focusing on crime, political instability, protests, terrorism, kidnapping, cybercrime, and health and infrastructure issues. Prioritize trusted government advisories, reputable news, and specialist security or travel-intelligence sources rather than unvetted social feeds. For year-end travel specifically, layer in seasonal factors: holiday crime trends, increased demonstrations, severe weather, and infrastructure stress (airports, roads, emergency services).
At a granular level, evaluate neighborhoods around hotels, offices, and event venues by checking crime data, local language media, and community chatter about thefts, scams, or targeted attacks on foreigners. Identify safe hospitals, police stations, and alternate hotels as pre-designated emergency rendezvous points near each critical location.
Before departure, conduct OSINT on the executive’s and key family members’ digital footprint, focusing on information that could support targeting around travel. Look for publicly visible itineraries, flight numbers, hotel check-ins, recurring routes, license plates, and geotagged posts that reveal patterns or locations in real time. Review hostile mentions, doxxing attempts, or threats on mainstream platforms, fringe communities, and relevant deep or dark web spaces that reference the principal, company, or upcoming events.
Feed those findings into behavioral guidance: adjust what the principal and staff post, strip geotags, delay sharing of location-sensitive content, and tighten privacy controls and contact details exposed online. Where necessary, coordinate with legal and communications teams on takedown or content moderation strategies for the most sensitive exposures.
Use OSINT to validate the security readiness of hotels and key venues: prior incidents, past guest reports of theft or harassment, visible access controls, and any local reporting on insider threats or organized crime links. Cross-check airport and airline reliability, strike actions, protest activity, and local transport disruptions that could force last-minute changes to movements. For ground routes, review recent traffic incidents, crime hotspots, and areas associated with kidnappings, roadblocks, or carjackings, then identify primary and secondary routes for each movement.
Where possible, use street-level imagery and local forums to understand choke points, construction, and likely crowding near venues, especially around New Year’s events and holiday markets. Document all of this in a short brief for drivers and close protection teams, emphasizing “no-go” areas and emergency diversion options.
Year-end trips need continuous monitoring because conditions change rapidly during holidays, elections, and peak travel periods. Establish a monitoring plan that tracks breaking security incidents, protests, crime spikes, natural hazards, and transport disruptions along the itinerary, using curated OSINT sources rather than ad hoc browsing. Define thresholds for action, such as what triggers a route change, venue switch, lockdown in place, or full evacuation, and ensure the executive protection team and corporate leaders agree on these before departure.
Finally, ensure all intelligence flows into clear, concise outputs: pre-trip briefs, daily updates, and quick alert formats that the protection team can digest and act on under pressure. If the team cannot articulate what they should do in the first ten minutes of a plausible emergency based on that intelligence, the OSINT workflow needs to be simplified and sharpened.