This week’s incident at the Liverpool FC Victory Parade serves as a timely reminder of the complex challenges facing organisers and security teams responsible for large scale public events. While media reports make it clear that the incident was not related to terrorism or targeted criminal activity, the rapid circulation of news and social media commentary highlights the need for agile and informed decision-making in high-profile, fast-moving environments.
The Evolving Landscape of Event Security
The nature of event security is more complex than ever, with evolving threats arriving from both physical and digital fronts. Traditional security measures alone are no longer sufficient; today’s threat landscape is shaped by dynamic social sentiment, rapidly shifting online discussions, and the potential for misinformation or escalated unrest to emerge and spread within minutes.
With thousands of digital conversations happening, analysts need visibility into these online discussions to identify trends, detect unusual activity, changes in sentiment, or escalating or emerging topics that may indicate potential risks to event safety. Early detection of these signals empowers a timely and informed response, reducing the likelihood of incidents and supporting the overall success of public gatherings.
Advancing Risk Mitigation Through Digital Intelligence
Traditional risk assessments, while important, no longer suffice on their own. The sheer velocity and complexity of news media, social media, messaging apps, and public data streams require a new approach. Today’s most effective security teams layer digital intelligence technologies on top of existing protocols to detect, understand, and act on potential threats before they escalate.
Proactive Event Security, Powered by AI-Enabled OSINT
Fivecast ONYX equips security teams with an advanced, AI-enabled OSINT solution for proactive event security. It enables scalable, real-time collection and analysis of online data, giving security teams the actionable insights needed to protect both people and infrastructure at large-scale events. With Fivecast ONYX, intelligence analyst teams can:
- Monitor digital conversations with ongoing collection across both mainstream and niche online channels, including region-specific and multi-lingual platforms.
- Identify and assess potential threats or sentiment changes early, across multiple languages and regions.
- Visualise social networks and map actor relationships, streamlining investigation processes.
- Prioritise resources by providing analysts with credible, actionable intelligence that helps focus efforts where they are most needed, protecting event attendees, stakeholders, and organisational reputation.
As demonstrated in our recently published Large Scale Events Case Study, Fivecast ONYX is trusted by intelligence and security stakeholders globally to protect high-profile sporting events, political gatherings, and major public celebrations.
Collaboration is Key: Prevention Over Reaction
It’s important to recognise that no single technology or approach can address every risk associated with major public events. Effective event security comes from ongoing collaboration between law enforcement, event organisers, and intelligence teams, each contributing unique expertise and tools. OSINT and digital intelligence play a supporting role, complementing traditional measures and empowering decision-makers with timely, actionable context.
Best Practices for Event Risk Mitigation:
- Deploy multi-platform monitoring for emerging threats, misinformation, and real-time sentiment changes
- Harness multilingual analytics to avoid blind spots in non-English digital conversations
- Automate account discovery to surface and triage new threat actors
- Leverage verified, actionable data for rapid coordination with law enforcement and emergency responders
Open-source intelligence is an increasingly important part of the intelligence toolkit for both law enforcement and private organisations charged with protecting communities at large scale events.
Request a customised demo with our experienced Tradecraft team to understand how this technology can enhance your event security strategies.
