The threat of surveillance has grown in recent years due to technological advancements in surveillance devices. These miniature devices are readily available on the internet or at your local electronic store. They can be quickly deployed to access sensitive information, which in the wrong hands can compromise the reputation, credibility, and trust that you’ve spent years building.
In today’s highly competitive market, anyone can become a target of covert spying and eavesdropping. However, some people, due to the nature of their legal situation, financial position, or occupation, are at a higher risk. A disgruntled employee, spouse, competitors, foreign states, or criminals will go to any length to gather intelligence about your business.
While most businesses employ heightened security protocols to prevent some eavesdropping devices from being planted, the only way to completely protect yourself against surveillance is by thoroughly searching for eavesdropping devices and destroying them. Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM), also known as bug sweep, is a highly specialized and comprehensive service that detects listening devices’ presence. TSCM specialists identify potential weaknesses and existing security breaches in your communications technology and provide corrective action recommendations to neutralize the threat.
Common Places Eavesdropping Devices Are Hidden
Any location where valuable and important information is openly discussed is susceptible to bugs. Today’s listening devices are more sophisticated, smaller, and easy to hide. The most common hiding places include:
- Private residences
- Cars, boats, and aircrafts
- Mobile phones and landlines
- Business offices such as boardrooms and conference rooms
- Corporate apartments
What Happens During a TCSM Examination?
Our technical surveillance countermeasures combine physical and technical inspections with best-practice techniques and procedures to discreetly determine threats and detect the presence of technical surveillance devices. We’’ll also identify technical security weaknesses that may allow illegal penetration of your business or residence and provide a professional evaluation of your business’s technical security position.
The most popular technical surveillance countermeasure is the bug sweep, which involves using various specialized tools to examine sensitive areas to identify and locate any electronic listening devices. Our expert technicians will conduct a methodical physical, visual, and electronic search of your location for devices such as transmitters, microphones, camera systems, and recording devices during the sweep.
During visual and physical inspections, we sweep all locations for eavesdropping devices. Our technicians thoroughly inspect and scan rooms in your home or office buildings, walls, ceilings, appliances, floors, office equipment and other locations common for listening devices by using sophisticated equipment. These scans allow us to generate an RF spectrum footprint of your locations to identify RF spikes and examine them.
Our electronic examination leverages various highly-specialized equipment to identify and locate malicious signals and obscured eavesdropping devices. We inspect computer lines, telephone cables, AC electrical outlets, and any other wiring capable of transmitting communication for intercept devices and wiretaps. We also search for hidden GPS trackers in vehicles, including trucks, cars, aircraft, and boats.
After our technical surveillance countermeasures sweep, we compile a detailed TSCM report of the results and your company’s existing security measures. Where necessary, we’ll make recommendations on how you can enhance your company’s security. All our recommendations will be based on cost-effective and workable solutions.
Devices to Detect Malicious Surveillance
At Beau Dietl & Associates, we constantly invest in the latest technical surveillance countermeasures equipment and stay updated and educated on the latest technology trends and threats. Some of the TSCM equipment we use includes:
- Spectrum analyzers to search for hostile RF signals
- Non-linear junction detectors to sweep for hidden eavesdropping devices
- Phone wiretap detectors to test the integrity of your phone lines
- Multimeters to test for heightened electrical usage
- Frequency scanners to sweep for radio frequencies
What To Do If You Suspect You’re Being Bugged
If you believe you’re a victim of malicious covert eavesdropping, do not panic, as this will make you make mistakes and alert the eavesdropper that you’re onto them. Instead, contact a technical surveillance countermeasures specialist. Although it’s natural to want to confirm your suspicions by using bug sweeping devices before contacting a specialist, you’re more likely to miss a bug unless you have the appropriate technical training. It’s better to let an expert do a professional bug sweep to confirm whether you’re being spied on or not.
When contacting a TSCM company, you need to be cautious and discreet. If your home is bugged, your business premises, telephones, car, and computers may be as well. The safest place to call and discuss your problem is away from these places and not over a landline telephone. Avoid using your phone as it could be bugged, and use a public payphone, a hotel telephone, or any other phone not connected to you. When possible, keep the suspected area occupied until the TSCM professionals arrive to prevent possible listening devices’ removal.
Once you have spoken to the TSCM specialist, schedule a visit as soon as possible. If you wait too long, you’re likely to slip up and alert your spies that you’re seeking professional help, and they will quickly turn off or remove their eavesdropping devices and reactivate or reinstall them after the bug sweep is done. You can schedule a threat assessment or vulnerability analysis and have your TSCM professional do a TSCM survey.
But don’t wait to have a problem to contact a technical surveillance countermeasures company. Form an ongoing relationship with a TSCM company and set up a formal technical surveillance countermeasures policy to protect you, your family, and business from surveillance.
Choose Beau Dietl to Conduct a Bug Sweep
Technical surveillance countermeasures go beyond searching for eavesdropping devices. It encompasses thoroughly inspecting, fortifying, and securing your communications technology and putting in place heightened security protocols to safeguard against future threats.
With the help of professional technical surveillance countermeasures specialists, these practices can help you prevent the loss of sensitive information to electronic surveillance. Contact us at Beau Dietl & Associates and let our highly trained TSCM specialists help you maintain the integrity of your business, home, and vehicles against the threat of technical eavesdropping.
