Analysis: Corporate America boosts security spending after UnitedHealth murder, filings show

At slightest a twelve S&P 500 (^GSPC) companies person flagged an summation successful information risks, a Reuters investigation of the proxy statements - oregon yearly disclosures to shareholders - showed.

Blue-chip companies specified arsenic Walmart (WMT), General Motors (GM), American Express (AXP) and chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO) person disclosed caller oregon accrued information expenses from erstwhile years.

"The fig of customers requiring assessments and enforcement extortion has accrued 10 to 15 times the fig anterior to December 4," said Glen Kucera, president astatine information services steadfast Allied Universal, which serves much than 80% of Fortune 500 companies.

UnitedHealth spent $1.7 cardinal connected information for its apical executives successful 2024, the archetypal clip it disclosed the item successful its proxy connection connected April 21.

Its security portion CEO, Thompson, was changeable dormant connected December 4 successful a targeted onslaught successful New York that raised fears among executives implicit threats to their safety.

UnitedHealth rival Elevance Health cited an "enhanced information hazard environment" to rise information benefits, portion Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, and pharmacy concatenation Walgreens reported further expenses.

Of the 208 S&P 500 companies that person filed their yearly proxy connection for fiscal 2024, astir 31.3% of them granted a information perk to astatine slightest 1 of their named enforcement officers, according to Equilar, an enforcement compensation probe firm.

That disbursal roseate to a median of $94,276, up from $69,180 successful 2023, based connected disclosures from astir a 4th of the companies. In 2022, erstwhile 23.1% of companies reported information spending, the median was $40,917, Equilar told Reuters.

Because Thompson's execution took spot precocious successful the year, compensation experts said proxy statements for 2025 volition apt amusement an adjacent greater summation successful information spending.

"We expect that security-related costs and perquisites volition apt summation successful presumption of the magnitude of imputed income that's disclosed successful proxies but besides the prevalence," said David Kokell, caput of U.S. compensation probe astatine Institutional Shareholder Services.

CEOs and different salient executives tin go lightning rods for choler directed toward broader organizations, starring to much spending connected security, adjacent though it is inactive a tiny fraction of a company's yearly concern expenses.