This content was originally published in January 2000. For the latest in HR management, visit our archives or try our online compliance portal, HR.BLR.com.
Terrorism in the form of kidnapping, extortion, and violence, plays no favorites. Businesses and business people have become as likely targets as government leaders. Executives of small companies as well as large corporations have been targeted by terrorists both here and abroad.
These violent acts are not done on impulse. They are carefully planned with the aid of well-organized information. When planning an attack, terrorists want to know some of the very things that supervisors or even rank-and-file employees might know.
Here is a list of the kind of information that should not be shared in the workplace, particularly with strangers.
DO NOT Talk About:
- Where your company executives live.
- Their phone numbers, license plates, routes they take to and from their offices
- Their children—names, where they go to school, how they get to and from classes, their friends
- Executives’ travel plans
- Clubs they might belong to
- Their hobbies, such as tennis or golf
- Favorite vacation spots or dates when executives take of for vacations
- Cars used—chauffeured or not, make and model
- Details of their personal lives—married, single, social habits
- Bodyguards (if used)—what they look like, etc.
- Their weapons—if they carry arms, what type
- Company planes—how many, type of plane, where kept