While the boom in business is good news for security firms that offer EP services, this growth is a reflection of the larger, troubled economy.

“The whole business is growing ”“ we’re getting calls from everywhere,” says Sunil Ram, director of operations at Executive Security Services International, based in Huntsville, Ont. “There are a lot of plant closings and layoffs, and people’s buttons are being pushed by executive bonuses. We’re getting about 25 cold calls annually from clients, beyond the ongoing retainers we already have in place with bigger companies.”

While recessions have come and gone many times during his 25-year tenure, Ram says, technology makes the current one far more challenging. “With the advent of the Internet, Twitter, Google Earth and GPS technology, information about people is more readily available. If someone wants to attack you, they typically gather intelligence about you first. In the past, this meant physical surveillance, but all this technology has provided the bad guys with a convenient way of doing this without leaving their homes.”

Once the domain of larger firms, requests for sweeps to sniff out electronic surveillance gizmos are now coming from smaller firms too, adds Ram. “We’re seeing more SMBs coming to us for help about this. You don’t need to be an electronics genius anymore ”“ anyone can buy and use spy software and other gadgets nowadays.”

Canadian EP services aren’t just growing on the domestic front, they’re also growing internationally, says Dean Walker, president of The Ronin Security Group, a crisis management firm based in Barrie, Ont., and which has offices in the U.K. and Israel.

“We’re seeing a significant increase in Canadian firms outsourcing their operations to Mexico and India,” says Walker. “These companies don’t just need EP services for senior management and their families. They want travel security plans, physical security assessments of their residences and commercial facilities, and geopolitical analyses of criminal elements in their operating environment.”