Do executives need identity protection?

Being an executive comes with a ton of responsibility—leading an organization, ensuring goals are met, and finding creative solutions to large-scale problems. However, that visibility and influence can also make them prime targets for several bad actors, such as criminals, hackers, and scammers.  

Some scammers might be after their money, while others may seek their company’s money or information. The challenge here is that executives can take all the right steps to protect themselves and their families but still end up dealing with financial and emotional fallout that can last weeks, months, or even years. 

And if a criminal manages to get their hands on company information or funds, a single incident can change the direction of an executive’s career and future. However, with the right protection, they can help protect their family, their company, and themselves from the ever-changing tactics of these bad actors.  

Digital threats targeting executives 

Executives may have access to significant financial resources. Their salary, investment accounts, and other assets make them an attractive target for hackers, identity thieves, and scammers.  

Now, people with high incomes or significant assets may be a target for criminals. The difference is that executives are often in the public eye. The interviews they’ve given, where they’ve traveled and where they’re traveling next, or even the addresses of their residences can be available to the public, giving criminals critical information they can use to plan their schemes or make them even more convincing. 

For example, say an executive posts that they’re traveling to a large conference on LinkedIn. The next day, they get a call from the hotel they booked—it’s the same number that’s posted on their business page, and they have all the information about their reservation, such as dates, check in times, and more. The “hotel” asks the executive to confirm the credit card number that’s on file as the one they provided to secure the reservation didn’t go through. In reality, it’s a scammer that has spoofed the hotel’s number and is trying to steal the executive’s credit card information. 

And with data brokers selling information like addresses and other information, criminals may be able to locate an executive’s home and get the information they need to plan crimes like robberies and identity theft.  

And because executives are a target for these schemes, by extension, so is their family. Criminals know that one of the best ways to gain access to someone’s finances and resources is through their loved ones. Children may have access to streaming accounts that are linked to payment methods, spouses likely have access to bank accounts and credit cards, and parents and elderly family members may have access to shared accounts.  

A scam targeting these family members can give scammers the information they need to steal funds or commit a more complex scheme, such as identity theft.  

For example, a criminal reaches out to an executive’s child pretending to be a peer from another school or contacts their elderly father pretending to be a love interest from a dating site. Once the criminal has gained their loved one's trust, they can mine them for the information they need.  

Digital threats targeting organizations 

Experiencing a scam or identity theft can obviously have a huge impact on someone’s personal life: lost funds, complicated recovery efforts, and the feeling of violation when a criminal worms their way into their life. 

But the impact of a scam, identity theft, or data breach can reach far beyond someone’s personal life. An executive’s leadership role means they have access to a ton of sensitive information—financial records, internal data, employees’ personal information, and more.  

And if a criminal gains access to an executive’s personal information, such as email login credentials, they may be able to use them to gain access to corporate systems. This information can be stolen during a scam, but it can also be purchased on the dark web when their information is involved in a data breach.  

For example, a scammer is able to get their hands on an executive’s email login credentials. Pretending to be them, they use their personal email to contact your IT department to have them reset their work account password after being locked out. Eager to help, the IT department sends a new password, which the scammer uses to access your workplace systems and steal financial records, confidential documents, and more. 

But that’s not all—they can also use the information gained from a scam as the foundation for another more convincing, and much more damaging, scheme. In fact, these schemes have resulted in companies losing over $10 million in just a single incident.  

For example, a hacker gains access to an executive's personal email from a scam, which contains details about a confidential deal in which your organization is acquiring another company. Posing as the executive, they email your accounting department and request that they wire funds to a bank account to complete the deal. In their email, they provide several confidential details that make the ruse very convincing. The accounting department wires the funds, and the hacker makes off with millions.  

How an identity protection plan can help executives 

It might seem impossible to stay safe from all these threats, especially with executives experiencing such a high degree of visibility in the public sphere. 

But with Allstate Identity Protection, you can help insulate an executive’s family, finances, and themselves from these threats with 24/7 monitoring, best-in-class customer service, and helpful features, including scam protection that reimburses executives for losses from scams and proactively detects scams and malicious links across email, text, apps, notifications, and more on all their devices. 

Identity and scam protection plans also include: 

• Cyber protection that protects devices from viruses, malware, and phishing, including a military-grade VPN with built-in ad blocking 

• Data privacy tools, such as dark web monitoring, data removal, and data breach notifications, to help executives keep track of their data and prevent it from falling into the hands of data brokers, sketchy online vendors, and criminals  

• Allstate Scam Protection℠, which includes features like scam reimbursement coverage, email threat scan, mobile scam alerts, and more 

• Identity protection, including reimbursement for stolen funds and fraud-related expenses like lost wages and legal fees, as well as best-in-class identity restoration and expert support 

While your organization may already offer identity protection as an employee benefit, an executive identity protection plan provides additional protection that can help better protect what matters most.  

This includes: 

• Higher scam reimbursement limits to help ensure executive finances aren’t heavily impacted by a scam 

• Dedicated support specialists to help executives, their families, and their personal assistants navigate any fraud situation that comes their way 

• Higher identity theft reimbursement limits for both executives and their family members, including stolen funds 

To learn more about our executive identity protection plan and how it can help you protect your executive’s family and your organization, reach out to our sales team.