“Despite less-than-ideal economic assessments, 51% of companies plan to boost IT spending, with a median increase of 5%. The focus? Cybersecurity.” Yet we find many security directors are continuing to ignore technical surveillance threats. Many fail to understand what a technical surveillance attack is (and what it is not), how to assess risk and how…
Lots in the news about politicians, MPs and Senior Government Ministers being given warnings about the risks posed by mobile devices. Can you believe that MPs are STILL carrying phones into meetings? Politician privacy needs to be taken seriously. Standard security advice for most commercial executives should be NOT to take a powered on mobile…
What was Project Acoustic Kitty? Bugged by a surgically altered cat?! We’re guessing most TSCM professionals don’t automatically consider the source of an eavesdropping attack to involve a family pet. Discussions in the Verrimus Operational TSCM Training Facility today centred around imagining what other domestic animals could be turned into viable eavesdropping attacks. Goldfish seem…
Understanding Corporate Espionage and Technical Surveillance Attacks Undertaking Technical Surveillance Awareness training courses is essential to understand the threat landscape of corporate espionage. There’s a wide range of privacy-compromising and eavesdropping devices available for technical surveillance attackers to use. But what do you know about corporate espionage? How familiar are you with the methods of…
Verrimus TSCM specialists question whether the Government privacy training provided to UK Ministers is fit for purpose. “The Johnson, Truss and now Sunak governments have all had publicly revealed issues with information security. For Boris Johnson’s administration it was the extensive use of WhatsApp to discuss and make COVID policy. This morphed into the use of WhatsApp…
“If you’re going to Qatar for the World Cup, you had better get a burner phone. And don’t take any photos that might fall foul of the Gulf state’s strict morality laws.” France’s influential data protection authority CNIL is telling football fans how they should protect themselves from the Qatar World Cup apps’ snooping. “Ideally, travel…
Pegasus in the EU: A Watergate-Scale Spyware Scandal The Pegasus spyware scandal continues to ripple through the European Union, drawing comparisons to Watergate in its scale and political fallout. Pegasus, a powerful surveillance tool originally designed to fight terrorism and organized crime, has instead become synonymous with state overreach, political surveillance, and the erosion of…
So, your organisation needs to decide whether to develop and maintain an internal TSCM (technical surveillance counter measures) service or to contract the services of an external service provider. How do you decide which is the best option for you? Establishing and maintaining an in-house capability is not quick, easy or cheap, but it is…
There is an abundance of very cheap and easily obtained technical surveillance attacks out there. You have been warned! Our latest test and training devices, small covert cameras, cost less than £30 Generally, people refer to technical surveillance attacks as ‘bugs’. Most competent TSCM operators dislike this over-simplified term. There are many examples portrayed in…
Is your organisation wanting to build your own internal TSCM capability? TSCM capability building is not easy or cheap, yet it’s an option that does appeal to many organisations. Building an internal capability means that you no longer have to rely on outsourcing your TSCM requirements to external service providers. It will require a heavy…