The bug pictured here doubles as an answering machine cord. In fact, if a bug transmits too strong a signal, the target can detect it too easily. The bug’s transmission need not be powerful. However, technology allows for bugs to use external power sources, such as the target’s own electrical system. Some bugs are now smaller than a dime, and in the smallest devices, battery power is limited. Time-How long must the power source for the bug last?īugs are transmitters, and they need a power source. With a less-sophisticated target, such as a drug gang or a Third World military or diplomatic installation, a good team can do a great job in as little as five minutes. In twenty minutes, a six-person tech team can install a top-quality eavesdropping system that will be difficult for even a sophisticated opponent such as a Russian or Communist Chinese embassy to detect. With less time, they will be less thorough. If a tech team has as much as twenty minutes to work, they consider it a luxury. If a field spook or a team has only a few minutes, then they will use the simplest installations of disguised bugs. Time-How long will they have to plant the bugs? In other words, your character's time constraints will dictate whether they plant the bug or they call in a team. In that case, the spook would do the job, and they all have varying degrees of training and expertise in basic bugging techniques. If they need critical information quickly, a field spook may not have time for a tech team to show up and do a thorough job. Time-How soon do they need the information? How an operative or a team bugs a location depends on several factors. While other types of intelligence personnel partake in bugging activities as opportunities allow, when time and opportunity permit, a specialized team can do a better and less-detectable installation of bugs. Intelligence services around the world all now field such specialty teams.īugging technology has improved tremendously since audio teams were first formed, but the tech teams of today still use some of the basic practices and principals developed prior to 1960. The term audio team predates video surveillance, but it is still used by older (pre-video) spooks, while the term "tech teams" is used by younger ones. The agency also developed “audio teams,” whose specialty it was to bug targeted spaces. Once the bug inside the Great Seal was discovered in 1952, the Central Intelligence Agency ("CIA") invested heavily in developing better bugging and bug-detection technology. They did this by presenting the ambassador with a gift of a carving of the US Great Seal. In the early years of the Cold War, the Soviets successfully bugged the US Ambassador to the Soviet Union’s residential office in the US Embassy in Moscow from 1945 – 1952. It’s cute and convenient for writers to pretend that bugs are so easy, but in modern times, this is far from the truth. The characters usually find them in a few seconds on lampshades, behind pictures, and inside desk phones. We’ve all seen and read about fictional spooks locating bugs in homes, offices, and hotel rooms. In spook parlance and crime stories, the term “bug” refers to electronic devices for clandestinely monitoring targeted spaces. If your phone rings, your conversation is not secure, and neither is your microwave. To test this, put your phone in the microwave when the phone is on and then call it. Also, turn off phones and put them in the microwave. If you need to have a private conversation in your house, turn off your computers and keep them well out of the room.
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