At large-scale events like World Cup matches, a Super Bowl or the LA 2028 Olympics, viewers around the world will turn their attention to the athletes. At these types of large-scale events, often categorized as National Special Security Events (NSSEs), a tightly choreographed collaboration of federal, state and local agencies is required to manage logistics, intelligence and operational response. The spotlight may be on the athletes and fans, but the unsung work happens behind the scenes, where security teams and support personnel operate before, during and after each event to ensure the safety of participants and spectators. While much of that focus is outward, securing perimeters, screening crowds and scanning for external threats, some of the most significant risks can come from inside the event itself.

In an era of multi-dimensional threats, the line between external adversaries and internal vulnerabilities has grown increasingly blurred. Contractors, vendors, temporary staff and employees are vital to the success of major events; however, they also introduce complex risk considerations. Managing those risks requires more than background checks and credentialing; it calls for investigative awareness rooted in federal risk management frameworks and duty-of-care principles. Agencies and partners must align with established standards such as the National Insider Threat Task Force (NITTF) guidelines and the Department of Homeland Security’s National Infrastructure Protection Plan, emphasizing collaboration, transparency and early intervention. By fostering information-sharing and cross-functional coordination, investigative teams can recognize behavioral and contextual warning signs in ways that strengthen both security and trust.

The inside threats that don’t make headlines

When we talk about insider threats in the context of NSSEs, many think of espionage or deliberate sabotage. But the reality is often more subtle, and therefore more dangerous.

Consider this real-world example: A contracted former employee of the San Jose Earthquakes’ home stadium admitted to logging into the concession vendor’s administrative system and deleting menus and payment selections. His unauthorized access, triggered from home after his termination, interrupted operations on opening day and resulted in more than $268,000 in losses.

These kinds of incidents highlight a fundamental truth: Insider risk isn’t just about malicious intent; it’s about exposure. And exposure multiplies with scale. When thousands of people have physical or digital access to a high-profile venue, especially when celebrities, politicians and global audiences are involved, the likelihood of insider-related incidents grows exponentially.

Investigations as the backbone of event security

At their core, investigations are about collecting and connecting the dots between people, data and threats. For NSSEs, this investigative function becomes the connective tissue that binds disparate security disciplines together.

Consider the investigation of a potential insider risk within a major international summit.

• A social media monitoring team flags an insider — in this case, a contractor — expressing frustration about working conditions.
• The venue security team reports a missing equipment case from the same contractor’s storage area.
• A public records check reveals the individual was previously charged with theft.

Individually, none of these signals confirms a threat. But when unified under a connected investigative workflow, the risk becomes clearer and more actionable. This is the type of cross-functional insight that defines modern event protection. It’s not about reacting to threats; it’s about uncovering the threads before they unravel.

Large-scale events generate intelligence at an unprecedented scale: everything from credentialing data to behavioral reports, cybersecurity logs and social media feeds. Yet these systems rarely connect to and communicate with one another. The result is fragmented visibility and slow investigative response.

For example:

• A fusion center monitoring social media identifies a user threatening to “disrupt the opening ceremony.”
• A local police investigation logs a similar username associated with a harassment complaint.
• A corporate security team managing sponsor operations notices suspicious activity during credential pickup with the same surname and the same location.

If these datasets live in silos, that pattern may never be connected. But within a connected framework, analysts can correlate these intelligence signals in seconds, surfacing a person of concern who may have both motive and proximity to the event.

Building a connected investigations framework

Establishing an effective investigations framework for NSSEs and other high-profile events requires three key capabilities:

1. Pre-event inside vetting and behavioral baselines

Agencies and private partners must move beyond one-time background checks toward continuous, risk-informed vetting that emphasizes awareness and accountability. For example, a Defense Department–affiliated recreation facility on Walt Disney World property uncovered that an accounting technician had exploited her system access over 18 months to issue unauthorized refunds totaling more than $183,000. In a large-scale event environment, similar credential misuse could go unnoticed without behavioral baselines and cross-functional coordination. Establishing clear patterns of access and communication among HR, security and operations helps detect anomalies early and address them before they evolve into costly or reputation-damaging breaches.

2. Case linkage and pattern recognition

Event-related investigations should never exist in isolation. When analysts apply connected data analysis and link mapping, patterns begin to emerge: recurring individuals, behaviors or affiliations that might otherwise appear unrelated. Each isolated incident may sit on the margins of concern, but when viewed collectively, they can reveal a broader narrative: an insider demonstrating escalating behavior or progressing along the pathway to violence. By aggregating and analyzing these small signals, investigative teams can shift from reacting to incidents to identifying intent, uncovering risks long before they cross into active threats.

3. Real-time collaboration and feedback loops

Investigative insight loses its power when it’s buried in inboxes or trapped in spreadsheets. The true value of intelligence emerges only when it reaches the right people at the right moment. Breaking down silos between intelligence analysts, investigators and operational teams ensures that findings translate into timely, informed action on the ground. Establishing an event-specific security operations center — one that unites state, local and federal agencies with venue security and event officials under a shared framework — creates a single hub for intelligence sharing and rapid coordination. This collaborative model transforms investigations from static reports into dynamic, real-time decision support, ensuring that every partner has the visibility and context needed to anticipate and neutralize risks before they escalate.

Even as artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into the investigative process, the human element remains indispensable. Technology can accelerate analysis and detection, but it’s human intuition, context and judgment that transform data into decisions — capabilities that AI has yet to replicate and replace.

Securing from the inside out

As the U.S. prepares for a decade of NSSEs, the success of each operation will depend on one foundational principle: Security starts from within. The most sophisticated perimeter protection and threat detection systems cannot compensate for insider risk that goes unexamined.

By operationalizing investigations within a connected framework that unites intelligence data, event security teams and tradecraft, federal agencies can transform insider threats from unknown liabilities into known risks, enabling the implementation of mitigation actions. In doing so, they not only safeguard events, but also set the new standard for how public and private sectors can work together to protect what matters most when the world is watching.

Tim Kirkham is vice president of the investigations practice at Ontic.

The post Securing the spotlight: Inside the investigations that protect America’s largest events first appeared on Federal News Network.