One of the most interesting aspects of the Bezos story earlier this month was the insight it offered into the security apparatus he surrounds himself with, particularly his instruction for Gavin De Becker “to proceed with whatever budget he needed to pursue the facts”. There’s something oddly thrilling to read this, inviting us to imagine that we too had unlimited resources which could be brought to bear on the righting of wrongs. But the fact this relation exists to this category of service providers is itself interesting.
De Becker was apparently a leading figure in modernising the security industry, moving it beyond ex-military personal (who presumably still have a role, at least if descriptions of the entourage Zuckerberg sometimes travels with are accurate) into what appears to be a more ‘full spectrum’ approach to the security of his clients. But even if De Becker seems to be an interesting chap without any reals sins, it’s hard not to wonder who else inhabits this space. I’m particularly curious about the murkier and more opaque areas of it, with the possibility that ‘fixers’ can now be hired in a modernised manner as if they were providing any other services to the rich and famous.
Mark Carrigan 