Executive Targeting Incidents Doubled in 2025, Report Finds
Threats against senior corporate leaders escalated sharply during the past year, with incident levels reaching their highest point on record in 2025, according to new research from the Security Executive Council (SEC).
The study, Executive Targeting Report: Analysis of Attacks on Corporate Executives from 2003-2025, documents 424 open source reported incidents worldwide. By the end of October 2025, incident volume had doubled from 2024 levels.
The dataset behind the report is part of a multiyear collaboration between the SEC and Mercyhurst University’s Business Intelligence and Innovation Lab, with analytical support from the Center for Intelligence Research, Analysis, and Training. It included incidents targeting senior corporate executives, as well as family members and executive staff when they were clearly targeted as an extension of the executive.
“CEOs remain the primary targets, but attacks on other senior executives are rising, particularly in the technology and financial sectors,” according to the report.
Incident Types
Physical activity accounted for 85 percent of documented incidents, including assaults, kidnappings, stalking, and protest-related actions. Physical attacks or violent incidents accounted for 37 percent of physical incidents. Among these, 75 percent were carried out through ambush or walk-up tactics, while 8 percent involved drive-by shootings, the report said.
Cyber incidents made up 14 percent of the activity the researchers assessed, including death threats, impersonation, swatting, and account compromise. Hybrid cases, such as those that use digital spying to stalk someone in person, continue to emerge, blurring the lines between digital and physical threats.
Thirty-three percent of incidents in the study resulted in death or physical injury.
After a temporary decline in incidents in 2022 and 2023, incidents started to rise again in 2024—driven primarily by activism-related incidents—and experienced a sharp increase in 2025 with 95 cases in the first 10 months of the year.
Incidents occurred most frequently during the work week, with nonviolent cases peaking on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Violent incidents reached their highest levels on Fridays, “indicating an end-of-week escalation among higher-risk assailants,” the report said.
Nonviolent incidents were most common from January through May, while violent incidents peaked in December and over the summer.
“Overall, the data indicates that threats cluster earlier in the year, likely reflecting periods of increased executive visibility and public engagement,” according to the SEC report.
Executive Characteristics
CEOs are not the only executives facing increased threats today.
“Threat actors are no longer focusing on a single executive profile—targeting has broadened across leadership tiers,” said Bob Hayes, SEC managing director, in a press release about the report.
While CEOs represent 64 percent of targeted individuals, the report documents a notable increase in incidents involving non-CEO leadership roles, including a 225-percent increase since 2023. Those senior leaders accounted for 32 percent of all targets. Relatives and executive staff were affected in 3 percent of cases.
The most frequently targeted industries were financial (17 percent), technology (17 percent), and manufacturing/industrial (12 percent).
Most targeted executives since 2003 were male (84 percent). Although female executives account for a smaller share of targets, incidents involving them have doubled between 2021 and 2024, the SEC report said. Incidents involving female executives were more likely to occur at their residences (64 percent) compared to 44 percent for males. Female executives also experienced higher proportions of physical attacks, protests, and kidnappings.
Assailant Characteristics
Information on assailants was less consistently available than victim data, “primarily due to limited reporting standards and the low rate of criminal apprehension,” the report said.
Nearly half (43 percent) of assailants’ genders were unknown; 34 percent were identified as male, 19 percent involved mixed-sex groups, and 4 percent were female. Multi-person incidents were common; 53 percent included two or more people, while only 27 percent involved a lone actor.
Most assailants were strangers to the target (76 percent), while 18 percent had a workplace connection, such as a current or terminated employee.
Assailants were armed in 37 percent of incidents, primarily using firearms, bladed/pointed weapons, or explosives.
“Although activism was the most common motive overall, the pattern shifts when incidents are separated by violence level,” the SEC report said. “Violent incidents were driven primarily by criminal motives (52 percent) and personal grievances (28 percent), while non-violent incidents were largely linked to activism (66 percent), consistent with the demonstration-based nature of protest activity.”
Incidents with personal motives accounted for 15 percent of incidents (65 cases), but nearly 80 percent of these involved an armed assailant, and 69 percent occurred at an executive’s residence or workplace. These factors indicate a higher potential for severe outcomes, the report said.
