On the other hand if they have a legitimate reason to be concerned
about eavesdropping due to being a business, political, sports,
entertainer, or religious leader and they know that their group tends
to be victims of eavesdroppers, or they are in the middle of some
kind of civil proceedings like a divorce or child custody battle I am
happy to perform a sweep so long as the customer actually needs a
sweep and is not just trying to burn money to make themselves feel
better. In this case the customer is fearful or concerned, but it is
with good cause and belief as they are in a position to be exploited
by an eavesdropper.
Quite a few people in business have been a victim in the past and
they just want to ensure that their offices are reasonably free of
eavesdropping threats or leakage. In these cases the customer does
not have a specific eavesdropper they are concerned about, but rather
they just want to ensure that their office is secure from a potential
weakness or exploit and are more interested in keeping an
eavesdropping incident from happening in the first place, and not
finding the bug after the fact. This group of clients tend not to be
frantically calling every TSCM firm in the country, and are looking
for a long term project that hunts down anything a spy could exploit
in a technical fashion or things that might help the spy gain entry
or access. They are using the sweep project more an insurance again
current and future penetrations, but you have to ensure that the
person for whom you are doing to sweep actually has the juice to
clean up what you find, and is not just someone in the security
deposit (who usually lack the budget to bring in a real TSCM person,
and certainly lack the budget to clean up the mess).
A good rule is that the person for whom you are working for should
have the authority to fire the companies security or MIS/computer
people on the spot, and be able to increase or decrease the security
department budget as needed. This same person should be able to
engage your services without obtaining approval from any of their
superiors, and should be able to secure a retainer check for you on
the same or next business day. With this in mind I recommend that if
you want a quality sweep that you only be dealing with an officer of
the company, and preferably one of the top five senior people in the
company. Yes, sometimes the security department may seek your
services, and they may well be involved in the project at some point,
but security folks rarely understand sweeps and tend to shop based on
price, while senior executives are more concerned with the toughness
of the sweep and how much technical attention to detail is given.
If you wanted to work up a really successful marketing program you
would collect a list of the top five people in all companies that do
more then 5 million dollars of business per year, and which were
within 50 miles of your office. You would then send each person a
simple, one page letter introducing yourself and your services plus
several of your business cards. Then once a quarter pick one person
at the company and send that one person a letter with a article or
white paper that concerns their areas of interest, then wait 90 days
and send a similar letter or white paper to the next person in the
company that is on your list. After you get established you can
expand this out to 200 miles, and focus on companies that do at least
25 million per year.
Always treat anybody who contacts you with a great deal of respect,
but be willing to explain to someone that they really do not need
your services and that they should seek medical help.
-jma
At 02:29 PM 1/7/2009, ADVANCED COUNTERMEASURES wrote:
>It has been my limited experience that when trying to determine
>the threat, that if the
>'customer' cannot articulate exactly who the threat might be, as
>in
>'THEY always know what I am doing' or 'THEY are always following
>me around' or
>'<insert alphabet agency name here> is experimenting on me' it
>is ALWAYS a medical condition.
>
>My response has been to RUN, not walk away. This has served me
>well in the past.
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World Class, Professional, Ethical, and Competent Bug Sweeps, and
Wiretap Detection using Sophisticated Laboratory Grade Test Equipment.
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James M. Atkinson Phone: (978) 546-3803
Granite Island Group Fax: (978) 546-9467
127 Eastern Avenue #291 Web:
http://www.tscm.com/
Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 E-mail: mailto:jm..._at_tscm.com
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We perform bug sweeps like it's a full contact sport, we take no prisoners,
and we give no quarter. Our goal is to simply, and completely stop the spy.
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:27 CST