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Protect Your Business Against Modern Security Threats
- By Christine Harrell
- Published 09/29/2008
- Technology
- Unrated
Christine Harrell
Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on office sweeps, visit http://www.theinvfirm.com.
View all articles by Christine Harrell
Industrial espionage is more common than most people think. Organizations that don't protect themselves risk loss of customers and market share. In very competitive industries, regular office sweeps protect companies from one of the most common espionage techniques: audio transmitters, also known as "bugs."
Don't Give Away Your Secrets
Small and powerful microphones are easily available and can be planted in an office or telephone to pick up sensitive information. They can be planted in seconds if someone gains access to your office and last for days on the internal battery.
Voice activated digital recorders can record a hundred or more hours of audio then be picked up at the convenience of whoever placed them. The recordings can be analyzed and enhanced to pick up any conversations you might have.
These devices don't even have to be planted in person. A gift sent from a grateful "customer" might contain a tiny transmitter, sharing your secrets with the outside world. Virtually undetectable video cameras can pick up more than that, allowing the spy to identify important clients or even read documents and computer screens. Office sweeps can find both audio and video bugging devices, protecting your company's information.
A New Way To Steal Passwords
Did you know a spy could even obtain computer passwords with a microphone?
In 2005, three
graduate students at Berkeley showed that each key on a computer keyboard makes a different sound. They created a computer program to analyze the sounds of someone typing, compare the sounds to patterns in the English language, and deduce which sound corresponds to which key.
With a 10-minute recording, this program was able to reproduce 96% of what was typed. This means a spy could learn the contents of a confidential letter or memo typed on any computer. However it has more serious implications.
Using this 10-minute recording, the algorithm was able to deduce passwords typed on that keyboard. They found that 5-character passwords could be cracked in fewer than 20 attempts 90% of the time. 10-character passwords were a bit harder, but they were still able to discover 80% of them in fewer than 75 attempts.
Office sweeps can find these bugs, preventing a security breach that could expose the contents of your entire network to an intruder.
Office Sweeps Are Becoming More Common
As technology makes it easier for companies to spy on each other, more organizations are hiring surveillance companies to perform office sweeps. Skilled and experience counter intelligence can "clean" your office of unwanted intruders that an amateur could never find unaided.
Diligence is important. The longer a bug goes undetected, the more information that can be revealed. If you have any reason to suspect a competitor might be spying, it is a good idea to have your office checked out.
Don't Give Away Your Secrets
Small and powerful microphones are easily available and can be planted in an office or telephone to pick up sensitive information. They can be planted in seconds if someone gains access to your office and last for days on the internal battery.
Voice activated digital recorders can record a hundred or more hours of audio then be picked up at the convenience of whoever placed them. The recordings can be analyzed and enhanced to pick up any conversations you might have.
These devices don't even have to be planted in person. A gift sent from a grateful "customer" might contain a tiny transmitter, sharing your secrets with the outside world. Virtually undetectable video cameras can pick up more than that, allowing the spy to identify important clients or even read documents and computer screens. Office sweeps can find both audio and video bugging devices, protecting your company's information.
A New Way To Steal Passwords
Did you know a spy could even obtain computer passwords with a microphone?
In 2005, three
With a 10-minute recording, this program was able to reproduce 96% of what was typed. This means a spy could learn the contents of a confidential letter or memo typed on any computer. However it has more serious implications.
Using this 10-minute recording, the algorithm was able to deduce passwords typed on that keyboard. They found that 5-character passwords could be cracked in fewer than 20 attempts 90% of the time. 10-character passwords were a bit harder, but they were still able to discover 80% of them in fewer than 75 attempts.
Office sweeps can find these bugs, preventing a security breach that could expose the contents of your entire network to an intruder.
Office Sweeps Are Becoming More Common
As technology makes it easier for companies to spy on each other, more organizations are hiring surveillance companies to perform office sweeps. Skilled and experience counter intelligence can "clean" your office of unwanted intruders that an amateur could never find unaided.
Diligence is important. The longer a bug goes undetected, the more information that can be revealed. If you have any reason to suspect a competitor might be spying, it is a good idea to have your office checked out.