King Safety and Security (KSS) helps families and organisations understand their exposure to kidnap, ransom and extortion threats, plan how they would respond and prepare their people. In a live case, a specialist partner leads the response, with KSS supporting the family and providing security around it.
Understand the exposure
Who could be targeted, how and why
Plan the response
Decisions and responsibilities agreed before they are needed
Prepare your people
Awareness training for those most exposed
Specialist partner
Live cases led by specialists in that work
Preparation is where most of the risk can be reduced
Kidnap, ransom and extortion threats are rare for most people, and serious when they occur. In the middle of an incident, a family or company has little time to work out who decides what, who speaks to whom, and who should be told. Much of what shapes the outcome can be settled long before anything happens.
KSS’s work starts in that preparation. We look at how exposed someone really is, agree a plan in proportion to that exposure, and make sure the people concerned know what to do. Where the risk is low, we will say so.
Who this is for
- Families and family offices, whose wealth, profile or routines may attract attention
- Companies, with senior executives or staff exposed through their role, or through travel to higher-risk locations
- NGOs, media and other organisations working in conflict zones and unstable regions
- Public figures and senior leaders facing threats, blackmail or coercion
What KSS does
Exposure assessment
An assessment of who could be targeted, by whom and how, drawing on the person’s or organisation’s profile, routines, travel and what can be learned about them online. This can stand alone, or form part of a personal vulnerability assessment or wider risk assessment.
Response planning
A clear plan for how a threat, demand or incident would be handled: who is responsible, how decisions are made, how information is controlled, and how the family or company would reach specialist help. Plans are built to fit existing crisis management arrangements, and can be aligned with a client’s kidnap and ransom insurance and its named responders.
Awareness training
Practical training that helps individuals, families and travelling staff recognise warning signs, reduce predictable behaviour and know how to respond, delivered discreetly. See also situational awareness training.
Reducing the exposure
Where the assessment calls for it, KSS can reduce the underlying risk through digital risk work, travel risk management, close protection and hostile environment support.
If a case goes live
Live kidnap, ransom and extortion cases are specialist work. They are led by a specialist partner, whom KSS can bring in on the client’s behalf, or by the responders named in a client’s insurance. KSS stays involved: supporting the family, providing security around the case and facilitating security for the specialists brought in.
Part of a wider function
For clients with a family office security or corporate and executive security function, this work sits inside that function, so that the plan is kept current as people, travel and circumstances change.
FAQs
No. Live cases are led by a specialist partner. KSS helps clients understand their exposure, plan their response and prepare their people, and during a live case supports the family and provides security around it.
KSS supports the family, provides security around the case and facilitates security for the specialists brought in, while the specialist partner leads the response.
Yes. KSS can align response plans with a client’s kidnap and ransom insurance and its named responders.
It depends on profile, location, routine and what can be learned about someone, rather than wealth alone. An assessment establishes whether the risk is real and what, if anything, should change.
That is usually the best time to do it. A plan agreed in advance is far easier to follow than one improvised during an incident. For many clients a proportionate assessment and a short plan are enough.
If anyone is in immediate danger, contact the emergency services. Then call KSS on +44 (0)20 3916 5145 and we will discuss the right next step, including bringing in our specialist partner.
KSS assesses and reduces digital exposure, and includes extortion threats in response planning. KSS is not a conventional cybersecurity provider; where network security, forensics or incident response are needed, we bring in specialist partners.
Protecting it is built into how KSS handles data, under stringent processes that apply from the first conversation onwards.
Start with a confidential conversation.
Tell us what prompted the question. We will tell you honestly whether there is a real risk, and what would reduce it.
We handle your details in confidence and in line with our privacy policy. We will only use them to respond to your enquiry.