Surveillance and Security
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Personal and Corporate Espionage / Spying
Are you being bugged ?
Surveillance
is getting easier. Bugs are getting better. The other day I was
lecturing to twenty senior executives from a major international
high technology company on the future. During a fast moving multimedia
presentation, which included virtual reality, videoconferencing,
Internet television, Cyberbanking, and a host of other related
technologies, I bugged one of the participants. Right under
their noses - as a demonstration in a country where such a demonstration
of surveilance was legal. Even as they watched me pace around
them, one of them was now carrying a minute transmitter capable
of being picked up half a mile away. The device would have landed
up being carried into the next meeting or the hotel bedroom. Devices
today are so sensitive that even with a receiver the participants
were unable to decide who was carrying the transmitter. Everyone
could hear the sound of his or her own breathing. They were shocked.
Surveillance
devices can be turned on/off from a mile away.
That means a board room will test negative when
screened for surveillance devices just minutes before a vital
meeting, and afterwards, although the bug may have been transmitting
every word spoken during the entire course of the meeting. These
kind of surveillance devices are extremely difficult to detect,
requiring equipment that is complex, expensive, and time-consuming
to use. In theory every room used for sensitive meetings needs
a screening every time it is used. The only possible exception
could be rooms that remain permanently locked except when used
by a very select group of people. But a sophisticated screening
to detect non-transmitting bugs may take several hours.
Remember that most
commercial breaches of security are created by staff themselves
who agree to betray their own companies for money.
And just in case you were still under the delusion
that a swept room is secure, devices are available using lasers
which allow someone to listen to a conversation taking place half
a mile away using equipment operating at that distance. Laser
light reflects off window glass, carrying with it vibrations from
noise inside the room.
Then there are the
cameras.
A
high quality colour video camera operating in bright or dim light
can now be squeezed into a screw head. The centre of a Phillips
screw is more than large enough to contain the lens of such a
camera, which can therefore be concealed in any light switch,
or any area of any room where a Phillips screw head is visible.
Networking means that every word spoken in one
room in Australia can be heard in precise detail in any other
country of the world day and night, using local telephone calls
and Internet encryption.
Most
companies are still in the Stone Age when it comes to commercial
security. Most of their attention has focused on such things as
password protection for systems, or identity passes at the security
gate. Those measures are useless against the constant threat of
commercial espionage -- a boom industry judging by the rapidly
growing turnover of company making these devices. Counter espionage
has often become the same technologies turned against one's own
staff. Bugging of friends, rooms, cars or even homes has now become
a routine part of commercial self protection. Of course one of
the big markets for all this is the divorce industry with spouses
trying to catch each other out, or to lay jealous fears to rest.
So what happens to
privacy?
Privacy died a long time ago. In some countries
use of concealed transmitters is against the law yet these things
are widely available for decreasing cost. When it comes -- say
-- to mergers or acquisitions, or other price sensitive market
information, a single phrase may acquire a commercial value of
several million dollars all more. Thus theft of "words spoken"
has become one of the highest value crimes that can possibly be
committed. We urgently need international agreement that covert
electronic surveillance is illegal except for enforcing law and
order. The sale of these devices should be banned in every nation
- they can all be bought in the UK with total freedom. The market
will still be there but it will send a clear message.
So how can you protect
yourself?
Firstly, you should assume that whatever room
you are using is insecure unless otherwise proven. You should
also assume that participants in meetings may occasionally be
wired themselves, and that participants leaving a room in the
course of a meeting may be hearing every word said after they
have left. It's the oldest trick in the book. Regard with suspicion
any small gift that the donor might expect you to keep in your
office, or put in your pocket. Examples included expensive pens,
paper weights or any other object. Strangely enough, a meeting
in a restaurant which is busy and noisy could actually turn out
to be safer than your own boardroom or videoconference suite.
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