Be hard to find. Even harder to target.
Privacy and Personal Threat Management for prominent people and their families, and for the advisers who look after them.
Something is not right. You cannot quite name it yet.
If your wealth or position attracts attention, most of it is simply part of the life. Occasionally it becomes something else (a name that keeps turning up in your messages, or a business dispute that has started to feel personal), and the point where it changes is rarely obvious.
You don’t need to know what is happening before you call. Working that out is our job.
How it works
It starts with thirty minutes with Philip, at no cost. You describe what has been happening, and we tell you honestly whether we can help.
Assess. A Personal Exposure Review shows what a stranger could find about you, and which parts of it matter. Where it would help, we also look at the security of your home, workplace and travel.
Advise. We tell you what to deal with first, and what can safely be left. Each recommendation comes with the reason for it, and is shaped around family life and the arrangements you already have.
Always-on. For clients who want it, the Defuse Advisory Service keeps watch continuously, with direct access to Philip and the team. As your circumstances change, so does the advice.
When a client brings you something outside your remit
Lawyers, wealth managers, family office heads and reputation specialists call us when a client's situation has become hard to read. We tell you whether the concern is justified and what a proportionate response looks like, then work alongside you for as long as it's useful, including if the matter reaches the police. The client relationship stays yours.
Reading the situation correctly
A fixated stranger behaves differently from a disgruntled former employee. Someone testing boundaries online is a different problem from someone escalating in person. Telling them apart early is what keeps a response in proportion, and it is the heart of what we do. No incident is read on its own. We set it against what came before, and against what you, your household and your advisers have noticed.
That judgement comes from Philip Grindell's work as Counter Terrorism Security Coordinator for the Royal Family and Government ministers, and from setting up and leading The Parliamentary Liaison and Investigation Team after the murder of Jo Cox MP. It is backed by the specialists who work alongside him, including our Chartered Forensic Psychologist.
Speaking in confidence
Clients tell us things they would not comfortably say elsewhere. What you share with us goes no further without your agreement, except where the law requires it.
Personal Threat Management: The Practitioner's Guide to Keeping Clients Safer
Personal Threat Management: The practitioner's guide to keeping clients safer is a practical guide for professionals required to make sound judgements about personal risk — often in conditions of uncertainty, pressure, and incomplete information.
Drawing on decades of frontline experience, Philip Grindell explains how to distinguish between behavioural noise and genuine threat, and how to respond proportionately before situations escalate unnecessarily.
Rather than promoting security activity for its own sake, the book focuses on understanding behaviour, intent, access, and trajectory — the factors that determine whether concern warrants action or reassurance.
Written for security practitioners, law enforcement, legal advisers, HR professionals, and others responsible for supporting at-risk individuals or organisations, the book provides clear frameworks, evidence-based insight, and real-world examples drawn from complex, high-consequence cases.
If your role involves assessing concern, advising decision-makers, or protecting people without overreacting, Personal Threat Management is a reference you will return to repeatedly.
Only what you need
We recommend protection or equipment only when your situation calls for it, and we will tell you plainly when it doesn’t. Any provider we suggest has been vetted by us first. Where we have a working relationship with that provider, we say so, and you remain free to choose another.
A specialist on every matter
Philip brings in the people each situation needs, from physical protection to intelligence analysis, and remains responsible for the matter throughout. Our own client work is never handed to trainees, and anyone we bring in has been vetted for experience as well as background.
Sometimes the answer is to wait
Not every concern needs action. Sometimes the sound advice is to do very little beyond keeping watch, and we will tell you what would change that view. Knowing when to wait can spare a family disruption and expense.
At a personal level, Philip is the person who tells me whether my client is actually in danger, and if so, what to do about it.
He won’t oversell, he won’t undersell- he’ll just tell me the truth. That clarity and integrity are invaluable. Defuse’s regular reporting provides calm, evidence-based reassurance, cutting through noise and unfounded concern. On one occasion, their rigorous, scientific assessment enabled appropriate escalation to law enforcement, resulting in a decisive outcome.
Defuse Global is now a trusted part of our protective ecosystem, and I would recommend them without hesitation.