Roy Chantler is principal of Business Development International, a Southampton-based provider of electronic counter-surveillance, including detection sweeps and telephone security analysis.
Security consultants working on the front line abroad must expect problems, writes Roy Chantler, and not only in his line of business, debugging.
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You might be sent by your company or client to survey newly acquired offices in Athens, Istanbul, Moscow. Wherever it happens to be, the chances are that a common denominator will link your assignment with mine. What is this mutual situation? Nobody has seen fit to consult us regarding suitability before signing on the dotted line! Advance information will probably be a sketch and address of some offices located in a multi-occupational building. A few days of intensive planning might find me paying off the taxi and casting a wary eye over the premises about to be swept or surveyed. Strolling round the back a depressing picture presents itself; a common external fire escape exiting into a derelict yard – open to the world. The balcony of an adjoining private apartment looks straight into my client’s office windows on the third floor. Situated in the next yard is a taxi firm sprouting a massive aerial mast. Back along the alleyway towards the front entrance a CCTV camera without lens sits blindly on the wall.
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The ground floor reception area displays a list of tenants; second floor is occupied by police administration offices, those on the fourth floor are not identified. Nobody on duty at the desk so I take the opportunity to nip downstairs and look in the basement. The open door reveals a partly flooded cellar with duck boards leading to the open telephone junction box that serves the whole building – a phone tapper’s paradise. Rear door with no lock leads toward the derelict rear yard. A modern lift deposits me into a plush well carpeted corridor on the third floor. My client’s offices are reached through an imposing wooden door with
a single lever lock – no alarm system or CCTV. I present myself at reception and am duly shown into the boardroom – its single glazed windows overlooked by said balcony and other nearby housing. No blinds, curtains too short and will not draw. They might as well put a sign in the window. ‘Laser transceiver-friendly area, bugging operations welcome’! Boardroom extends to the wall of adjacent next door apartment, sounds of music filtering through the brickwork.
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Introduced to the country manager and given a free hand to come and go as I please. Who occupies the floor above? Nobody knows. Prior to starting the sweep I carry out a physical survey, a cursory walk round uncovers some interesting features. Fourth floor telephone wires are routed through exposed trunking that serves all the floors. I could tap the above tenant’s wiring from where I stand; it follows that the police administration offices
below could also tap my client’s phone conversations – how convenient! I asked why the lights dimmed occasionally; apparently there is some sort of machinery operating in the building. This raises another question. How separate are the ring mains and are they susceptible to inductive crossover? This matters because mains carrier bugging could be an above average risk. Further tests confirmed this to be the case. Hard wired microphones could be anywhere, what a long session it is going to be with the non-linear junction detector! As for radio transmitting bugs, they would not need much range – 30 paces would be adequate! Then another discovery, some disused ducting in the manager’s office leads directly to the upstairs floor. I was not familiar with that mid-European dialect but the voices were clear enough! Could not the same be so in reverse’ A little microphone placed in the ducting and all the manager’s conversations are bugged!
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There is more, but I think you have the picture. Another thing that UK based companies should also remember; well connected local contacts are a must when operating anywhere outside the present EU member states. I do not include those joining in May 2004 as being in this ‘safer’ category! Bear in mind that even countries close by are risky. Local police can be very discriminative against UK and US interests! Yes, and I am speaking from experience! I recommend that firms conducting business in the Southern European area, such as Turkey, Greece, the Balkans, should have a trusted minder on call. It might look easy enough in the travel agent’s setting, but arriving in a
foreign airport where English is not spoken can be a problem; even small things can become a major issue, for me at any rate. My gear looks uncannily as though I have come on a sophisticated spying mission!
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If anyone wants the phone number of my minder I would be pleased to oblige. AH is a well connected Turkish national – with authority and tact. Educated in the UK, speaks four languages, has a diplomatic and military background and will travel anywhere! A trustworthy man with plenty of bottle – good to have around.
