THE WORK PLACE QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

There are many reasons why an office or place of work may be bugged.

(1) Competitors may want to know more about your company and your decisions

(2) Persons working for you may want to know “the latest pay decisions” or similar

(3) Other companies may want to steal your ideas (industrial espionage)

(4) A sacked or disgruntled employee may want to cause trouble for your company

(5) “Interested parties” may want to know your company’s secrets

(6) There can be huge financial reasons to want to spy on a company

If there is a motive for someone, there is normally a solution (legal or not). Depending on the source of the bug or listening device, there is normally a way to bug an office or place of work fairly easily.

(1) A “visitor” or “fake client or supplier” can arrange a meeting to get in

(2) When cleaners are working after hours, someone may blag their way in

(3) People can often “follow someone” through a security coded door

(4) Some businesses and individuals will carry out the work for a fee

(5) Employees wanting to bug an office will normally find it easy

(6) Meetings and conferences are of particular attraction to all sources

Bugging devices can be placed almost anywhere. They can be fitted in the mouse you are probably holding now, the electrical sockets, the light fittings, the keyboard, behind the suspended ceiling. They can be in the calculator on your desk, the telephone, and yes – even the pen you write with.

Many offices have someone looking after the IT network, and rely on this person to provide a safe virus free environment for the workplace. The problem is that the spy-ware used to bug or spy on someone’s emails, letters or confidential communications, can generally NOT be found or stopped by firewall’s or even the best anti-virus software. This is because spy ware used for spying on your information works is a completely different way to most viruses.

For this reason, yes your computer can be bugged.

Counter surveillance, is the processes and defences used in order to detect and stop someone or some organisation carrying out surveillance on another person or organisation. TSCM stands for Technical – Surveillance – Counter – Measures, which is the technical protection offered by the equipment and methods used to prevent or detect surveillance.