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HOWTO Commit Corporate Espionage

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the do-you-hear-what-i-hear dept.

bart_scriv writes "Worried about who might be spying at your company? Businessweek looks at the latest in espionage gadgets and technology in response to the recent HP boardroom scandal. The article looks at devices designed for counter-espionage, which range from mundane confidential email services to sophisticated camera and listening-device detectors. '...for every method of spying, there's a counteroffensive. One of them is the eavesdropping protection kit, manufactured by Dynasound in Norcross, Ga. To secure a room in an office building, devices are placed on ceiling plenums, floors, HVAC ducts, doors, walls or windows — basically anywhere voices can travel.'"

7 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Great lengths at great heights by ian_mackereth · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I had occasion to visit the office of a major oil company CEO in Melbourne (Australia) a few years ago, while it was being fitted out.

    Along with the obvious requisites like the bedroom and the seperate airconditioning (he was the only person in the building allowed to smoke!), the windows were double-glazed and had a white-noise generator in between the panes to foil any sneaky lasers from other oil companies' CBD high-rises!

    I was at first bemused at the expense of it all, but then I thought about the millions he'd get as salary, and the hundreds of millions affected by the decisions made in that office, and thought better of it...

    1. Re:Great lengths at great heights by DamnStupidElf · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hmm, my guess is that the white noise generator is practically worthless between the panes. The first pane will reflect a certain percentage of the laser, and the second pane will reflect another percentage of the laser. Subtract the two reflected signals, adjusting for the distance between the panes and the reflectance percentages, and the result will be the difference between sound on the inside and outside of the window minus the white noise. What might actually work is to attach a separate white noise generator to each plane to introduce echoes and interference that would be more difficult to filter out. In the end, given enough lasers and processing power my guess is that any white noise generation could be defeated. The trick is to always sample the white noise as close as possible to the generator, before it has been distorted, and then cancel it out at the point where the strongest "hidden" signal is available, but IANAS (I am not a spy).

  2. Trade Secrets by Sensi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sometimes it's as easy as walking by to get all the info you need.

    http://flickr.com/photos/reboof/259086845/

  3. It's Easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you have access to the network racks it's easier than you might think. Plug a microphone into an empty network socket, a patch lead from the microphone socket to a socket in your office, and an amplifier plugs into the wall socket in your office. Boardroom meetings were bugged like this for six years by a friend of mine and nobody noticed a thing.

    Bug sweeps might not find anything because no RF is emitted.

  4. Old toys by TrueKonrads · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most of the toys mentioned in article are pretty lame and sucky. Granted, for the PI or Spy that buys everything off-the-shelf, the counter-surveilance mentioned works, but otherwise it sucks, here's why (pont by point)

    White-noise generators assume that You have no access to the room or that it is impossible to plant a small piece on the person. Say, bump in "accidentally" into the CEO in question and place a 5 square milimeter chip. It will have an internal clock and mic. Once the CEO is out in fresh air, it will transmit the data back in one encrypted burst and destroy the information it had.

    Pretty much the same applies for cameras. One, you assume they are broadcasting within some pre-defined spectrum and do so all the time. Again, do a remote on/off or encrypted packet burst and such suverlance mechanisms fail. Besides, with advent of WiFi, if your super agent picks up emissions in 2.4Ghz range, he'll assume it's wifi and let it rest. Also, you can sramble the transmission, do a frequeny hop and bob knows what else.

    About that phone-line tap: Do we live in dark ages? Nobody has analogue phones and taps that feed off phone current.You can't detect it over ISDN lines (most offices) and it deosn't do anything for cell networks.

    No comments on vapourstream :)

    I have to admit, that the laser window snooping is the most effective in the list, as it is probably the easiest method and most reliable. For nice security, go low-tech : Have a friendly chat near a cooler (no windows), in a bath-house (most devices choke on humid air, transmission also would suck) or in a pool or sea (waves splashing, children, loud music).

    Besides, the entire chain of communications should be scure, aka TEMPEST approach - if once bit of wire is not tempest - entire chain is invalid. If one of the two persons in conversation, repeats what he heard over dinner table with his wife - what's the point?
    --
    Lone Gunmen crew.
  5. Interestingly by k2r · · Score: 3, Interesting

    the US / NSA has been proven to use echelon for industrial espionage in other countries eg. on Enercon in Germany: www.europarl.eutopa.eu, search for "Enercon" . It's quite difficult to find anything in English on this, but there's a lot of stuff in German about this case.

    k2r

  6. Low Tech and Cheap by thorkyl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Go to a garage sale and buy a TV put it on channel 13 with no antenna
        White noise generator

    Defeat laser listener
        Place radio on window sill with sub woofer pointed at glass

    Stop all eaves dropping
        don't talk us a #2 pencil and legal pad
          Shred the pad then burn the shredded paper then put the ashes in a bucket of water

    --
    -- I am the NRA, enough said...