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By Brian Wheeler
BBC News Online Magazine
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Following revelations
about bugging at the United Nations, is there any way of ensuring
that your private conversations stay that way?
News that Kofi Annan and other senior UN figures may have been
routinely bugged by US or British security services has caused a
huge political row around the world. But it will also have caused
alarm among other people in the public eye who deal with sensitive
information - or anyone, indeed, who values their privacy.
If the secretary general of the United Nations cannot prevent his
private conversations from being listened to by all and sundry, who
can?
It seems if someone wants to listen to what you are saying badly
enough, there is very little you can do to stop it.
"Technological advances, particularly in the fields of power
supply and miniaturisation, mean that its now possible to bug almost
anywhere and anything," says Charles Shoebridge, a former
counter-terrorism intelligence officer.
"Similar advances have enormously improved anti-bugging
capabilities too, and an enormous effort has gone into making
communications secure - particularly those of governments and even
large commercial organisations.
"However, if security is absolutely critical, it will always pay
to assume that a conversation is at least capable of being
monitored."
Mobile phones
According to security experts, the most common listening device
remains the electronic bug.
But government
agencies such as the CIA and MI5 have far more advanced systems at
their disposal.
Powerful uni-directional microphones can pick up conversations
through open windows.
If the window is closed, radio waves or a laser beam can be
bounced off the glass. The vibrations detected can be translated
into speech.
But potentially the most powerful tool for the modern spy is the
mobile phone.
Mobiles that double as listening devices can be bought over the
internet.
Undetectable
But today's spies are also able to convert conventional phones
into bugs without the owners' knowledge.
Experts believe this is the most likely method used to gather
information in the UN building.
Mobiles communicate with their base station on a frequency
separate from the one used for talking. If you have details of the
frequencies and encryption codes being used you can listen in to
what is being said in the immediate vicinity of any phone in the
network.
According to some reports, intelligence services do not even need
to obtain permission from the networks to get their hands on the
codes.
So provided it is switched on, a mobile sitting on the desk of a
politician or businessman can act as a powerful, undetectable bug.
The technology also exists to convert land line telephones into
covert listening devices.
Encryption technology
According to one security expert, telephone systems are often
fitted with "back doors" enabling them to be activated at a later
date to pick up sounds even when the receiver is down.
Telephone
conversations are also routinely intercepted by spy satellites. The
potency of key word recognition technology is often overstated, but
it is still used to scan millions of conversations a day for
potentially juicy information.
Encryption devices, which clip on to the base of mobile phones
and scramble the voice data being sent from your phone, are
available.
But those listening in may well be able to crack the codes.
Intelligence is constant battle between the bugger and the
bugged, says Michael Marks, of surveillance-equipment supplier
Spymaster, and "at the moment the buggers probably have the upper
hand".
Mr Marks' advice to anyone who thinks they may be under
surveillance is to ensure their office is swept regularly for bugs,
buy an encrypted phone and make sure no one in a meeting has a
mobile phone on them.
Inside the tent
Another way of making sure you are not being bugged is to use a
Faraday cage or shielded tent, which prevents radio waves entering
or leaving.
Mobile phone calls are impossible from inside the tent, but
no-one will be able to listen to your conversations using bugs or
radio wave listening devices.
It will also prevent anyone intercepting radio emissions from
computers, preventing them from seeing what you have on screen.
"[A Faraday cage] will stop you doing anything other than having
a conversation. It is a very crude, but very secure, way of
talking," says Michael Marks.
A more sophisticated - and expensive - method is to build a
"clean room", of the type used by the military, to shield radio
waves and electromagnetic signals.
Simple steps
But the hardest part, according to counter-surveillance
consultant William Parsons, is trying to convince diplomats and
politicians that there is a threat.
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Find out where the bugs have been planted
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"They think
you are trying to cramp their style. Talking is what they do.
"The fact that someone might be listening doesn't actually come
into their mind. It is not something that they actually comprehend."
There are a few simple steps anyone can take, Mr Parsons says, to
throw would-be eavesdroppers off the scent.
Don't hold sensitive conversations in your office or boardroom.
Or rather, give anyone listening enough to think they are getting
the full picture and then save anything truly top secret for
conversations in unusual locations, such as the basement.
It is better to use the office phone for secret conversations, Mr
Parsons says, rather than a home phone, because with 20 or more
lines leaving most buildings they are much harder to bug.
The big outdoors
Switching on the shower while you talk in the bathroom - a
favoured method of celluloid spies - is also unlikely to work, as
constant volume noise can easily be filtered out.
In fact, the only way to truly guarantee privacy, according to
most security experts, is to take a walk in the park.
Charles Shoebridge says: "It remains the case today as it has
always been, that probably the best way to avoid being eavesdropped
is to pass information during a long, unpredictable and unannounced
walk in the big outdoors.
"Word of mouth is always preferable to any form of electronic
communication - assuming the information's recipient is entirely
trustworthy, of course."
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