Privacy can be vital to businesses, governments and even local councils alike. This is for a number of reasons, such as keeping research and development ideas from prying competitor eyes or, in the case of government and local councils, there are meetings that are held in private due to legal concerns where they discuss a range of issues including those affecting vulnerable children and adults.
Bug Sweeping Services
Councils have the responsibility of keeping the information held and discussed by the councillors (as do all public and private companies) and other employees, confidential under the Data Protection Act. As a result, Bug sweeping services have hit the news and in this post we are going to hear about a story that was reported in the Herald on the 27th April this year.
The Chief of Plymouth City council was informed that there was a chance that bugging devices had been secreted in parts of the building that were used for meetings. The council received a letter from a former councillor, which suggested that the council should check out this fact. Bugging devices can be very small and of such a good quality, that they can transmit data over longer distances than ever before. As such, they decided that it was better to be safe than sorry and decided to sweep the council offices for bugs. The council spent £2,200 employing the services of a bug sweeper. Thankfully, in this instance, the offices were bug free.
In the business world it’s not just personal data that is at risk from bugging devices. A man in America has been found guilty of selling trade secrets to China. His wife pleaded guilty to a related charge. The case involved passing sensitive company information about how to make Titanium Oxide – a whitening substance that can be used in everything from making cars to baking cookies. This is not the only case of employees stealing trade secrets from DuPont, as two other employees have also been convicted of economic espionage.
As in the case of of Plymouth Council, it seems prevention is better than cure. If you are responsible for the safekeeping of company trade secrets that keep your company one step ahead of the competition, or you run the offices where sensitive information is held and discussed, it is worth making sure that your space is bug sweeping services of a professional counter surveillance specialist.
