Partner Adam Wilkinson speaks to The Sunday Times about security, stalkers and high-profile sports stars

Partner Adam Wilkinson recently shared his insights on the privacy and security risks facing leading sportspeople with The Sunday Times.

In the wake of elite and high-profile sports stars like Emma Radacanu dealing with obsessive fans, the true cost of success has been brought into the spotlight. Alongside other experts including close protection specialists and private security personnel, Adam discussed the dual threat of physical and digital risk for those at the top of their game.

“You need to defend your personal device as if it were your house keys,” says Adam Wilkinson, who leads the critical risk division. “Is your information on the dark web? The answer for 99 per cent of people in the world is yes, and it can be pieced together.”

But the biggest problem Schillings encounters in relation to athletes is actually blackmail. “These things run from the salacious boy-meets-girl type story, which turns into intimate photos or hacked iCloud accounts and affairs to, ‘I found out this information about your family and if you don’t want me to attack them, you’re going to bowl a wide in the third over.’ You don’t read about that very often because hopefully we defeat the criminals, but it is a serious risk to young athletes who have a lot of money and don’t necessarily put a filter on what they’re doing.”

Advancements in AI have made it easier to monitor obsessive or threatening behaviour online, but Wilkinson concedes that “if a high-level bad actor wants to get into your mobile phone, they will be able to do it”.

Read the full Sunday Times piece, 'Special forces and silent alarms on children — true cost of obsessive fans'.

‍