Talking

Information doesn’t need to pass through the internet to be illegally accessed. When discussing sensitive issues, consider the following questions:

1. Do you trust the people you are talking to?

2. Do they need to know the information you are giving them?

3. Are you in a safe environment? Bugs or other listening devices are often specifically planted in areas where people assume they are safe, such as private offices, busy streets, home bedrooms and cars.

It may be difficult to know the answer to the third question, because microphones or bugs can be planted in a room to record or transmit everything being said there. Laser microphones can also be directed at windows from great distances to listen to what is being said inside a building. Heavy curtains provide some protection against laser bugs, as does installing double glazed windows. Some secure buildings have two sets of windows installed in offices to reduce the risk of laser listening devices.

What can you do?

• Always assume someone is listening in. With an attitude of healthy paranoia, you are more likely to be careful when it comes to confidential matters.

• Bug sweepers or sniffers can detect listening devices, but can be expensive and difficult to obtain. Also, sometimes the people hired to conduct the bug sweeps are responsible for the original bugging. During a sweep, they either find a few “throwaways” (cheap bugs designed to be found) or miraculously find nothing and declare your offices “clean”.

• Any cleaning staff could be a serious security threat. They have after-hours access to your offices and take all your waste away with them every night. All staff should be vetted carefully for security clearance on an ongoing basis, as staff may be compromised after they join your organisation.

• Change meeting rooms as often as possible. The more rooms or places you use to discuss and exchange information, the more manpower and equipment will have to be used to listen in.

• Beware of gifts designed to be kept with you at all times, such as an expensive pen, lapel pin or broach, or used in your office, such as a beautiful paperweight or large picture. These kinds of objects have been used in the past to listen in on conversations.

• Assume that some proportion of your information is compromised at any given time. You may wish to change plans and codes often, giving your listeners only fragments of true information. Consider giving out false information to check if anyone uses or responds to it.

• To minimise laser microphone effectiveness, discuss delicate matters in a basement or a room with no windows. Some laser listening devices can be less effective during rainstorms and other atmospheric changes.

• Play an audio recording of white noise or a popular song to interfere with sound pick-up. Only expensive technology can filter out random noise to hear a conversation.

• Wide open spaces can be both helpful and harmful. Meeting in a secluded place makes it easy to see if you’re being followed or observed, but makes it difficult to escape by blending in. Crowds make it easier to blend in, but far easier to be seen and heard.