Leon Hart of private detective agency Intime Investigations warns that many people do not know they are being bugged. This is partly because technology is constantly changing. “It doesn’t take much for somebody to sit in a car with a laptop and use wi-fi to hack into devices,” he says.
You might not even suspect that your office is bugged until the clients begin to leave for your competitors in droves. So it’s worth knowing a few counter surveillance tricks if you regularly deal with sensitive company information.
1. Going public with the work laptop could spell disaster
While you diligently work through your lunch hour with your company laptop on the restaurant’s wi-fi, you could be opening your company to attack. Hart says: “We’re basically advising people not to use their work laptops with sensitive information on it on public wi-fi. There is a lot of personal information that will be held on a computer. You’ve got bank details there so it’s really important not to put yourself at risk.” Even with security measures in place, Hart claims that using public wi-fi still has the potential to open the door to highly-skilled hackers.
2. No detail is too small
Stay alert and keep an eye out for any changes. Has something been moved between yesterday and today? It may not be paranoid to take a look. “Look underneath desks, exposed phone lines, anything that might pop up overnight as it were,” says Hart. The out of place tile in the ceiling might reveal an audio device or a hand brushed underneath your desk might find a bug the size of a USB-stick that you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.
3. Keep track of who has access to the office
Always notice who is coming in and out of the office whether employees, cleaners or contractors. Is it really necessary for the cleaners to come out of hours? Verify that anyone entering a sensitive area is who they say they are and that they have indeed been booked for that purpose. Competitors might try to use cleaners or contractors because they generally enter unchallenged.
4. Get the professionals in for a counter surveillance sweep
While a little DIY can go a long way, surveillance devices can be smaller and more sophisticated than you’d guess. If it becomes apparent that the office has been compromised, you’ll probably need to call in a private investigator to find the bugs. Most investigators can perform a thorough physical sweep of your office confidentially outside of office hours if necessary and professionals use the appropriate electronic ‘bug-hunters’ to find anything suspect. Stephen Anderson, a director of Crown Intelligence Investigation, Belgravia, averages that companies who consider themselves high risk sweep as regularly as monthly.
