Eavesdropping and Counter-Measures: Technology and Techniques
Technical Surveillance Countermeasures
(TSCM) is another name for such defensive tactics. There are
a number of methods being used today that can compromise your
information. The theft and protection of secrets is a rapidly
expanding market.
Realistically, viewing your threat level has to be considered
since everyone should expect some sort of impending privacy
issue no matter how small. Thanks largely to the Internet you
can arm yourself with much of the knowledge and equipment that
the so-called experts use. If a respected agent of computer
crimes for the Secret
Service in NYC had his T-Mobile Sidekick hacked, who knows
what else happens out there to others in any business.
Realistically, viewing your threat level has to be considered
since everyone should expect some sort of impending privacy
issue no matter how small. Thanks largely to the Internet you
can arm yourself with much of the knowledge and equipment that
the so-called experts use. If a respected agent of computer
crimes for the Secret
Service in NYC had his T-Mobile Sidekick hacked, who knows
what else happens out there to others in any business.
We'll start acoustic ducting evaluation is the inspection of
air ducts, baseboard heaters, coffee rooms, lounges, bathrooms
or any way the architecture of a building can transfer sound. A
simple example is to put your ear to a wall and listen.
Basically anything that requires the use of the naked ear is
called an acoustic
bug. Softer surfaces can help muffle sounds but there are
more efficient means out there. So be aware that the way an
office site is designed can act as a conduit for conversations.
Also, be aware of any changes can have adverse affects. Simply
playing music can do wonders for masking conversations.
Inspection of telephone equipment and wiring is called line
analysis. This is trickier than it seems since sometimes a
possible weakness has an actual purpose to the telecommunication
system. Especially if it requires constant maintenance and
software upgrades.
All instruments should be opened and inspected. Ideally they
should be compared with a known safe phone or device. If you're
not sure, just remove that piece of loose components and wiring
and see if the phone still works. The wiring can be modified in
a switch within the handset that essentially turns it into a
microphone. If you bypass this hook switch, you can listen in
from anywhere on the landline. Technical equipment won't be able
to detect this. Time Domain Reflectometry is the sending of a
pulse down a telephone line. If there is some sort of
disruption; a wall outlet or wiretap; a portion of the pulse
will be sent back to the device called a Time Domain
Reflectometer (TDR). Then the time difference between the
reflection and the continuous run is measured. This helps in
determining the distance to the anomaly.
For instance, the microphone you use in a voice recorder can be
cut in half. Connect the mike head to one set of unused wires
anywhere on the phone wire. Then, so long as there are no breaks
in the wire, connect the other end to the jack that connects to
your recorder. Now place your recorder to be VOX (voice)
activated and now you have an extremely reliable bug. By the
way, this should be manually inspected for since using a
specialized bug detector may see nothing wrong or inconsistent.
A bug such as this that connects to a wire is called a direct tap.
The other general type is called an inductive tap. This is when
an instrument is outside a wire but can still distinguish what