Bug Sweep Services

What can we do if our office is bugged?

Bug sweep services or to give its American terminology name technical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM) in the United Kingdom it’s known as a local technical inspection or debugging sweep. It is our core service, not a secondary offering added alongside other work.

Generally, you have the following options if a covert eavesdropping device is found:

Photograph, document and remove. And then start searching for other electronic bugging devices that were likely installed at the same time, sometimes we identify a cheap disposable bugging device that our adversary has installed for us to easily find. The other covert camera or surveillance devices are better concealed and much more difficult to find unless you are operating with the very latest bug detection equipment.

Photograph, document, leave in place. If what is found is an RF bug or GSM audio bugging device, there is an option to disable or interfere with the bug to make it less effective or even inoperable. A further option is to place a concealed camera covering the area to establish whether a repair team returns to service the device, potentially capturing evidence of those responsible. Other bugging devices still need to be swept for in this situation.

Photograph, document, leave in place. A script can then be built to feed the bugging device false corporate information; a well-devised script can prompt those who installed the eavesdropping devices to react to the false information, which may help unmask their identities. Eventually the bugging devices should be removed and regular debugging sweeps at irregular intervals should be scheduled.

Options 2 and 3 depend on legal advice in the relevant jurisdiction; covert monitoring and the seeding of disinformation raise privacy-law issues. These are practitioner-led measures we coordinate with your counsel, not steps for you to arrange yourself.

Want to know more? Contact us to discuss your concerns and devise a debugging strategy.

The debugging experts at Risk3 Consulting, have been protecting the spoken word in Asia since 1992, and our founder and principal consultant, has resided in Hong Kong since 1992. We always take your concerns for your business seriously. We can normally respond to calls for our bug sweep services quickly anywhere in Asia. We operate at the highest levels of confidentiality and integrity and will keep your business bug detection inspection as low key as possible. To find out how we can help protect your business and keep your competitive edge please give us a call – away from the suspected area!

What you say in private is your business; keeping it that way is ours.

For more details please give us a call:

+852 9103 1852

Do hidden camera detector apps and cheap bug detectors work?

Not against anything that matters. A phone app can occasionally catch a lens reflection or a device sitting openly on the same Wi-Fi network; the low-cost detectors sold online alert on everything and identify nothing. Devices that record and forward in bursts, or sit dormant until triggered, walk past both. We sell no equipment ourselves, so we have no side in that market — but a result you cannot trust is worse than no result at all. If the question matters enough to check, it matters enough to check properly.

Can you check whether my phone is tapped or has spyware on it?

That is a device forensics question rather than a room sweep — and yes. Our digital investigations practice examines phones, tablets and computers forensically: evidence of stalkerware, unauthorised access and data movement, recovered and documented with the aim of supporting later proceedings; the court decides admissibility and weight. Where the concern covers both the room and the device, the two examinations run under one engagement.