Sweeping for Electronic Bugs

Technical Due Diligence

“Technical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM)” is an American technical term which means sweeping for electronic bugs; the British used the term “local technical inspection”, “electronic countermeasures” or “debugging technical sweep”; in a nutshell this means to detect, defeat, and nullify, electronic threats to privacy.

Sweeping for electronic bugs, includes identification of concealed or hidden camera equipment also known as spycams, and the detection of eavesdropping devices, such as miniature recording equipment, GSM bugging equipment, radiofrequency bugging devices all of which are surreptitiously installed and can cause the loss of business secrets including a corporation’s intellectual property.

The actual sweeping for electronic bugs, is not as it is portrayed in Hollywood; a quick walk-through with a hand-held detector is not the same as a full inspection, so it is worth asking any provider about their equipment, training and time on site before you engage them. A professional technical surveillance countermeasure’s sweep to identify surreptitiously installed electronic eavesdropping devices can take several hours within a single enclosed location and requires a substantial amount of technical debugging equipment to detect, defeat, and nullify all economic espionage surveillance device threats.

Sweeping for electronic bugs, can extend beyond the boundaries of the office, and can include such locations as C-Suite executive homes, corporate cars, yachts, and private aircraft. Other locations where an electronic countermeasures sweep is desirable is off-site meeting locations such as hotel conference facilities which may be used for company meetings, board meetings, as well as mergers and acquisition negotiations.

Off-site venues such as hotels can be harder to control than your own premises, and a pre-meeting sweep helps mitigate this. Eavesdropping devices such as hidden cameras, radio frequency bugs, and GSM bugs are commonly hidden in wall power outlets and extension leads; these allow an adversary to dial in and be present at your next board meeting, corporate presentation, or mergers and acquisitions meeting. We have previously identified such devices in hotel meeting and conferencing facilities; some of our finds appeared to have been installed for an extended period of time.

At Risk3 Consulting, we 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 sweeping for electronic bugs quickly anywhere in Asia. We operate at the highest levels of confidentiality and integrity and will keep your business counter espionage detection programme 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.