Corporate Espionage

Yesterday our local CIPS Security SIG had a presentation and discussion on corporate espionage techniques, and how to battle it. I am not permitted to discuss what was said in the meeting, but I am going to take this opportunity to discuss one aspect that dawned on me as we were talking.

In discussion about techniques for sweeping for listening devices we got into the topic of how cell phones can do neat things to computer monitors when they are close. And that makes sense. RF transmissions affect normal CRT type monitors. But your not going to walk around your office with a monitor looking for bugs.

Anyways, think of your cell as a bug itself. Most newer phones have an "Auto Answer" feature, which immediately upon signal answers the phone. Nice little feature. Now turn off your ringer. You now have a listening device you can use as an open mike. You can hide a cell phone in a board room hours or even days before, and then simply call into the meeting in progress and have an open mike that no one knows about!

This is where I think cell jammers would be useful. Remember when I talked about
the UK Cell Jam Scam? That same technology could be put to good use. You could place a jammer in a board room, and prevent this sort of thing.

Anyways, I had a great time spending hours discussing these techniques. Quite enjoyed it. Atleast I did until I started driving home. Took my OVER 4 hours to get home. (Normally takes me about 1h 15min) Apparently a rig flipped and oil spilled on the highway just before the bridge, and it took hours to clear it before I could move. Ugly drive home.