It seems that it wasn’t just Gary Lineker who was ‘all ears’ at the recent Wolves V Liverpool game!

Whilst the planting of a mobile phone in the studio transmitting a ‘sexual soundtrack’ caused much merriment on TV, and virtually every social media channel on the planet, the underlying risk will not be lost on security professionals. Some have said the incident brings a whole new meaning to ‘It’s coming home’!

This episode, whilst thankfully largely harmless, demonstrates perfectly the risks involved when confronting today’s eavesdroppers.

The physical security breach here is significant and also demonstrates perfectly that today’s eavesdropper does not need the skills of an MI6 officer to monitor and compromise conversations in a room.  In this case it seems the perpetrator simply walked into the studio with nothing more than a mobile phone and a piece of Velcro, hardly James Bond or ‘Q’ material.

The device was probably planted in seconds and was left lying dormant and un-noticed until the appropriate time. It is perfectly possible that off-air conversations could also have been captured by the device.

If you substitute the TV studio for your own office meeting space or boardroom then that’s when the reality, the risk and the ease of compromise really hits home.

The vulnerability also extends beyond home confines. Neutral venues such as hotel conference centres and meeting facilities are often even more vulnerable. It’s not uncommon to be able wander unchallenged around such areas of a hotel outside of business hours at will.

Conflict International have decades of experience in this specialist area of security and are seasoned purveyors of technical surveillance counter-measures.

If you want to be sure that uninvited guests are not at your next board meeting then call us for a no-obligation chat. Fair to say, unless you look you may never know.