Companies step up security in wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO killing
New York
CNN
—
Companies are closing headquarters, scrubbing their websites of top executives' photographs and increasingarmed security details for key leaders following the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Health insurer Medica temporarily closed its Minnetonka, Minnesota, headquarters as a safety precaution, a spokesperson told CNN. "We closed the HQ out of an abundance of caution following the shooting" of Thompson, the spokesperson said in an email.
CVS and other health care companies have removed photographs of CEOs and other executive leaders from their websites after Thompson's killing early Wednesday morning outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan.
It's common for top executives of major corporations to have personal security provided by their companies. But companies in a wide range of industries are racing to enhance security measures for executives in the wake of the killing.
"The reach-out from companies in the last two days has been very urgent," Glen Kucera, the head of Allied Universal's enhanced protection services unit, told CNN. "It's been eye-opening to a lot of companies in how they go about protecting their executives."
A manhunt is underway for the shooter. The words "delay" and "depose" were found on a live round and shell casing, according to law enforcement sources. The killing has unleashed a flurry of rage and frustration from social media users over denials of their medical claims.
Kucera said companies have taken a variety of measures since the killing. Some are asking for armed security personnel for executives as they travel and commute to workfrom their homes. Other companies are stepping up their monitoring of threats on social media platforms.
Some of these measures are short-term, but Kucera expects a permanent impact from the killing. Investors and companies' boards of directors will demand more periodic risk assessments for high-risk executives, he said.
Dozens of companies have expanded armed security protection for C-suite executives, including permanent security presences, in response to the killing, said Dale Buckner, the CEO of Global Guardian, which provides executive protection for a wide range of industries. Buckner said that in the first several hours following the shooting, 47 companies contacted Global Guardian requesting additional executive security.
"This is a bellwether moment and a shift," he said.
Buckner said that executives often travel with armed security protection when they go overseas, but such security details have been growing in the United States in recent years. Around-the-clock armed security personnel at executives' homes has also been increasing.
After the attack, UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare, laid out security plans for employees.
"We're ensuring the safety, security and wellbeing of our employees," said Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, in an email sent to employees on Thursday and obtained by CNN.
The health insurance company is fully cooperating with law enforcement as the search for the shooter continues, the email said.
"Several support mechanisms" are being put in place for employees, Witty said. "We have increased security at our campuses in Minnesota, in addition to sites in Washington, DC, and New York City areas."
That includes temporarily barring visitors from entering administrative campuses, he added.
Websites getting remodeled
As an added precaution, some health insurance companies have made their executive staff less visible on their sites.
Like UnitedHealthcare, which removed its executive page, Elevance Health, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and affiliated plans, removed a page listing senior leadership on Friday. That's according to nonprofit internet archive Wayback Machine, which documents when web URLs are removed or instructed to redirect users to a different page. Elevance Healthdid not respond to CNN's request for a comment.
CVS, which owns Aetna, told CNN it removed photos of executives after the UnitedHealth CEO's killing, but it left many of their bios up. CVS declined to comment further.
Centete opted for the same move, though it's not clear when it decided to remove photos of executives between Friday and two months ago, when photos of executives were last documented as being on the page, according to Wayback Machine records. The company didn't respond to CNN's request for a comment.
Still, even as health insurance companies removed information about executives from their sites, many executives kept their names, titles and photos up on other sites like LinkedIn as well as in press releases.
In many cases, it will likely be impossible for these figures to entirely remove their digital footprint and association with their employers, given that many have had numerous public speaking engagements as well as television interviews posted online.
CNN's Chris Isidore, Karina Tsui, Mark Morales, Brynn Gingras and John Miller contributed to this article.
