In intelligence tradecraft, the C in MICE stands for compromise: compromising knowledge about a person that can be used to put them under pressure. Kompromat does not have to be staged. It often arises by itself: an affair, debts, an expense claim that was not quite correct, an evening on a business trip one would rather not be reminded of.
How a mistake becomes leverage
- A mistake happens and is kept quiet because the consequences seem too great.
- Someone finds out, by chance or because the situation was deliberately engineered.
- First comes a small request, together with the promise that everything stays between us.
- Every request fulfilled becomes the next form of leverage. One mistake becomes a chain.
Austria's Directorate for State Protection and Intelligence (DSN) explicitly advises companies to avoid anything that could make them open to blackmail and not to accept unusual gifts or favours. That is right, but it is not enough. Nobody lives without mistakes.
The real weakness is silence
A blackmailer needs two things: a secret and the fear that it will come out. The secret often cannot be prevented. The fear can. Whoever discloses a mistake early, to the company, a person of trust or the authorities, takes the lever out of the blackmailer's hands.
What companies can do
- Clear, confidential routes through which staff can report an approach or a situation of pressure.
- A culture in which mistakes can be raised without immediately putting someone's livelihood at stake.
- Managers who know how to respond when someone comes to them with such a problem.
- Training that makes key people aware of their own pressure points before others find them.
Where there is actual blackmail, the case belongs with the competent authorities. The company's task is to make sure that those affected dare to take that step.
Further reading: DSN economic protection (Austrian Ministry of the Interior)
