A multinational energy company (the client) operating in a volatile, foreign nation was faced with threats of violence directed at its personnel and infrastructure. In the interest of safety, the client arranged for many of its personnel to depart the country. Complicating this situation, these threats occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when manpower and operations were already severely impacted. The client engaged Nisos to ensure the protection of the remaining manpower and facilities. Specifically, Nisos was asked to monitor online geopolitical sentiment from nation states directed towards the client’s operations and personnel and provide insight and guidance as necessary.
Why Nisos
The client’s need to reduce manpower during COVID-19 adversely impacted physical security operations and community engagement resources. Due to a high volume of threats being directed at the client, they needed Nisos to access closed forums and monitor the local population’s sentiment. Nisos was asked to identify and differentiate between real threats, sophisticated threats, and random, less impactful “noise.” This adversary insight was deemed highly important and delivered more insight than commercially available tools and social media monitoring technologies were able to provide. In addition, nation states and state-owned enterprises were gaining influence with local police and political personnel. The client was worried about these influences derailing ongoing community engagement projects critical to the local population.
