Security expert John Taylor loves telling the story about the C.E.O. who never even knew he’d been kidnapped. Arriving at the airport in Santiago, Chile, the executive was greeted by a driver and some nattily attired escorts, who took him out for dinner and entertainment. Meanwhile, his actual host was frantically scouring the airport—until he received a call from the kidnapper, demanding that he cough up a five-figure ransom if he wanted his executive back.

“The host paid the bounty, and the guy was dropped off at the hotel after being wined and dined, never realizing he’d been kidnapped until his real host ran up to him at the hotel and said, ‘Are you okay?’” Taylor says with a laugh.

With Blackwater U.S.A. security contractors under fire for the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in September, the private-security industry has lately been under increased scrutiny. But taking certain precautions has become standard in top-tier executive life. Companies are devising ways to protect business travelers in dangerous parts of the world and safeguard corporate assets, intelligence, and reputations.

Thefts, kidnappings, and cases of industrial espionage have been gradually increasing in recent years as law enforcement’s attention has been diverted toward terrorism. According to the Safe Travel Institute in Spokane, Washington, there have been roughly 20,000 kidnappings for financial gain worldwide since 2001. And the federal Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, which assesses intelligence threats to the United States, recorded more than 2,400 new investigations of suspected industrial espionage against U.S. companies in a record 108 countries between October 2004 and September 2005.

As a result, insurance companies that cover corporations are demanding that executives upgrade their level of security when traveling. Having a private-security detail may ward off potential problems, but it also enables companies to privately handle something that might be embarrassing or that could open them up to potential lawsuits if made public.

“It’s hard to get to diplomats, so what’s another high-value target? The C.E.O. of an American company,” says Emiel Fisher, a no-nonsense, 20-year security veteran who now runs his own security and counterterrorism firm, R.D.P. Worldwide, in Richmond, Virginia. “There are some situations a company doesn’t want to initially report to the police, such as missing laptops with sensitive information, which presents image and liability issues, or an executive having a good time—with everything that entails. Where your standard bodyguard might stop an immediate threat, a security detail would go one step further and fix the problem that required the security detail to begin with.”

V.I.P.’s are rarely told “no” by employees, so security may need to improvise ways to keep the rich, famous, and careless from making unsafe choices—hiring a car service if the client is too drunk to drive, for instance, or protecting them from locals who specifically target clients for money or corporate secrets.

And it’s not just exotic locales that are cause for concern. Metal detectors are now showing up at stockholder meetings, for example. “Shareholders meetings have become a big issue,” says Taylor, who runs the Arlington, Virginia, consultancy Homeland Security Strategy and advised corporations affected by the 2001 anthrax attacks. “It’s the only time when the general public knows where a C.E.O. is going to be.”