technical surveillance countermeasures Archives - Page 4 of 4

If You’re Asking, “Is My Office Bugged?” You Need to Talk to

If a bad guy has access to your environment, they can plant a bug. The most common way a bad guy gains access to a home or business is through the “service technician ruse.” It isn’t just in the movies, but in real life, too. He dresses as a service technician and says he is there to perform some service. While he is on the premises, he installs the bug. You might be surprised how easy it is for bad guys to do that. Security processes need to be established in every business, because every home and business is vulnerable without them. It’s important to only allow in workers that you have called to come provide a service, for you to see identification and to [...]

Listening Devices Might Not be the Only Threat to Confidential Business Matters

In one of my recent posts, I talked about how we did a Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) sweep for spy listening devices in the offices of a business. We didn’t find any eavesdropping devices in their offices, but we did determine that one of the other businesses in the building was being bugged. When we conducted the sweep and found nothing, that was a good thing. The business owner knew someone had learned something that was being held confidentially and was concerned. So he took the first logical step in his mind to find out if there were listening devices installed in the areas of the office where sensitive discussions were taking place. Eliminating eavesdropping devices from the options, he could move forward. Automatically people [...]

Cell Phone Forensics – No Judgment, Just Facts

We worked with a woman who called from Seattle. We know she contacted us because we are one of only a few investigative labs who can potentially identify the bad guy when we uncover a cell phone spy. What we didn’t know, was that she was concerned about being embarrassed because some of the details we would discover in the cell phone forensics process. She was afraid we might find something that would put her in what she felt might be a disparaging light. First, the case: The woman was an accounting assistant and she suspected one of the partners in the accounting firm she had formerly worked was stalking her. She suspected it while she was employed there and felt very uncomfortable. She ended [...]

Bug Detection has Evolved, Just Like Planting Bugs Has Changed

Technology has changed just about everything about life, hasn’t it? Well, that pertains to the investigative world, too. In the early 1970s, when did Technical Surveillance and Countermeasures (TSCM) sweeps, we were basically looking for radio room bugs and telephone line taps. Bad guys would generally need to have access to the location to plant eavesdropping devices. Bugs could be planted by a “fake” service technician who comes to handle a service call (that you didn’t make). He would access phone lines and install some sort of surveillance equipment. There were also those who would pick a lock and sneak in to bug a phone or climb a gutter to plant a bug. The equipment we needed to do a bug sweep could be contained [...]

Is Your Surge Protector Housing Eavesdropping Devices?

We worked with an attorney who was convinced that his office, phone, or both were bugged. He was in the middle of a case and the “other side” seemed to know every position, jab and parry he had planned and was prepared to counter him in the courtroom. It was just too much of a coincidence. He was convinced there was some sort of phone tapping or covert surveillance going on in his office. He tried to do some of his own bug detection—looking under his desk, around the windows, pictures and door frames for something, but he found nothing. So he called us. We did a bug sweep and lo, and behold, he was correct. Inside the surge protector power strip at his feet [...]

Why Would Anyone Tap MY Phone?

We hear that question a lot. There’s a really simple answer. You have information someone else wants. And they know you won’t tell them if they ask, so they figure out a way to get it without asking – they steal it. The information they want could be many different things found in a wide variety of settings: What is being included in a grant application at a competing university; What sales strategy is being implemented to move into a new market; The development of a new product that would “squash” the competition; How a client is being defended in court; Whether a spouse is having an affair. All of these bits of confidential information could have big dollar impact on another person or business, [...]