Restoring Confidentiality
One of the specialized services that we offer is bug sweeps, or what is official called a Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM). About ten years ago, we were asked by a law firm to respond to their offices to perform a bug sweep. The managing partner of the firm had found what he believed to be a listening device in his office, hidden behind a picture frame on a shelf.
Upon our arrival, our investigators examined the device and determined that it was, in fact, a miniature voice-activated recording device. The device was designed to look like a typical USB flash drive. Our investigators plugged the device into a computer to see what was on it. Several days’ worth of audio recordings was discovered.
Our investigators plugged the device into a computer to see what was on it. Several days’ worth of audio recordings was discovered.
Our investigators then performed a sweep of the firm’s offices to search for more devices using an array of sophisticated electronic bug detection tools. During this process, one of our investigators found the packaging for the device that was found in the partner’s office behind the frame. It was inside an employee’s desk drawer.
The employee’s workstation computer was then checked and more audio files containing several weeks’ worth of recordings of the partner talking in his office were recovered. The device and the workstation containing the recordings were collected as evidence, and the employee was terminated from his employment the very next day.