bug sweeps Archives - Page 2 of 3 - All in Investigations

TSCM Foils Entrepreneurial Voyeur and His Spy Equipment

You’ve all seen the movies, but truth be told, actual real-life situations beat out most all of the movies. Take for instance the situation a recent call brought to . The caller was a professional woman in her 40s who we’ll call Mary – and she was beside herself. Mary had received a call from a friend on the other side of the country telling Mary that she’d been featured in an online porn movie. Mary was VERY certain she had never participated in the production of a porn film and she couldn’t hardly believe there was any truth to it. So her friend sent her the link via email. To her horror, there she was – in her bedroom! That’s when she called . [...]

Trends in Private Investigation for 2014

Clearly the investigative world continues to evolve. At we have taken on the latest trends. There is no one investigative technique that is best utilized and blended investigative strategies are more the norm. Two areas where stays on the cutting edge are cellular forensics and social media engineering. For example, the use of digital forensics has become a critical tool in the resource box. We could be doing a cell phone analysis for data recovery or cellular forensics for cellular location evidence. Communication modes from test to email or call logs are all records to substantiate or refute claims of guilt or innocence. Cell phone forensic tools provide facts, not claims. In 2013, industry experts predicted a significant rise in the utilization of mobile device [...]

Successor Busted in TSCM Investigation

Here at we use a lot of high tech equipment and software. But along with that comes years of investigative experience. And we employ both good old fashioned detective work with the digital tools in just about every case we handle. One case involved a son and his father and the company the father had built from scratch. Both had offices in the same building, just a floor apart. In fact, the son’s office was directly below his father’s office. Dad, who we’ll call Sam was getting on in years and wanted to retire – at least part-time. But he wasn’t sure his son, we’ll call Jim, was ready to take over the helm. Jim believed he was able and the next in line. Sam [...]

Suspicions Lead to Fruitful Bug Detection

We had a client who had taken on a special, highly confidential project at work. The reason he called was because he was concerned about inadvertently leaking information. He kept asking “Is my phone tapped?” He wasn’t paranoid, but suspicious. What made him suspicious? Electronic devices were acting “weird” and although he said he had an electric personality, these odd sounds and happenings had never happened before. He described some of them: His AM/FM car radio had developed interference on several stations that had been previously clear. This could be the case of an eavesdropper since antennas can be exploited by eavesdroppers. Sounds were coming from his office phone line when it was not in use. Sometimes his office phone would ring and no one [...]

RV TSCM Sweep Not a Joke

Comedy really is no laughing matter. No, it’s big business and people’s livelihoods. When a call came into from an attorney who said his client was a jokester, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. At first, we thought he was being sarcastic about something a client was asking him to do, but no, the client was a comedian – really. And he needed a bug detector. The comic was on the circuit travelling from gig to gig, living in an RV. He was being considered for a television production and was working really hard to build his book of jokes and skills on stage. All of a sudden, there was a competitor who was making jokes very similar to the new material he and [...]

Security Starts with TSCM

got a call from a CEO who was concerned about an upcoming board meeting. The board would be discussing some very confidential matters including the terms of the sale of the company. If news of the sale was leaked, it could damage not only the negotiations, but the financial health of the company and the employees. He wanted to be certain that the conference room was completely secure. He asked that we complete Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM), or as it is often called, a bug sweep. He felt relatively confident that there were no eavesdropping devices or other surveillance equipment in the room, but he had to be absolutely certain. Usually listening devices are not evident to the casual observer. That’s why counter surveillance equipment [...]

Is Your Employee’s Phone a Mobile Spy Leaking Your Business Secrets?

All you have to do is sit in a coffee shop or lunchtime dining spot to hear that sensitive business information is being discussed. It may not be about a top secret merger or a hot new product, but information about how a company does business and who their customers are is bantered about in casual discussions. And with the proliferation of ILLEGAL spyware available on the Internet, cell phone spying is becoming more and more a problem. Here at , our mobile phone forensics team is being asked to conduct cell phone spyware detection for more and more businesses. Cell phone monitoring is most often regarded as a way for someone in a relationship to keep tabs on their partner, or in a stalking [...]

Would a Bug Sweep of your Business Uncover any Spy Equipment?

Just like an average citizen might ask who would want anything from them enough to take the time to engage in cell phone tapping, businesses across the nation might ask who would install eavesdropping devices or engage in electronic surveillance in their organizations. The answer is evident in a report from the National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX). The report says that foreign spies account for economic espionage costing “the United States economy as much as $400 billion or more per year.” Some say that is grossly understated. Now that’s BIG BUSINESS – and not the kind U.S. business wants to see. Is your business being targeted? Corporate secrets and intellectual property are highly valued by competitors and years of research and development could be wiped out [...]

Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) provides security – in more ways than one!

Many companies have Intellectual Property Protection insurance for protection. But insurance is only good after a theft or breach of confidential or proprietary information. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to prevent a loss before it happens? When a business hires to do a bug sweep, or more precisely, TSCM, it’s because they want to be proactive and protect proprietary corporate information from being leaked or lost. The TSCM process includes acting as a bug detector, revealing eavesdropping devices and spy equipment. But the actual bug detection services do much more. The benefits to a company or organization are much broader: Protection of damage to income and profits Continued viability of business strategy and processes Security of intellectual property Privacy, both corporate and personal is [...]

Know Who Comes Into Your Home or Business to Prevent the Installation of Listening Devices

Ahh, physical access to your home or business; bad guys love that and you might never even realize that you opened the door and invited them in. Here at we have seen so many things over the years and while technology moves on creating more spy listening devices, we have to add them to the list instead of replacing old with the new. The field of technical counter surveillance measures just expands. Our experience in Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) has shown us that access to your home or business opens up a wide array of spy surveillance options for bad guys. During TSCM sweeps we have uncovered many spy devices, including: A bug in a strip outlet, a clock, a radio or any other appliance [...]