Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
used for meetings by then Secretary of State Madeline Albright, it is likely
that the bug provided extremely useful information to the Russians. How-
ever, since these devices must transmit information, trained experts in the
field of counterespionage generally can detect them. Doing so entails
the use of sophisticated monitoring equipment to “sweep” an area and
attempt to detect the presence of unaccounted-for radiation from a par-
ticular area. The battle is always between the developers trying to make a
transmitter that is harder to detect and the companies building more sen-
sitive detection equipment.
USE OF SECURE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
FOR SENSITIVE CONVERSATIONS
Many military manuals on communications by radio or telephone begin
with the words “The enemy is listening.” Telephones may be tapped. The
same is true for lines used to fax documents. If someone has access to the
phone line, it is a simple matter for him or her to gain access to every con-
versation or any bit of information that goes across it. Corporate tele-
phone transmissions are highly vulnerable targets, especially overseas. In
fact, because of the volume of information transmitted over the phone,
such transmissions are often the primary targets for intelligence gather-
ing. The reason why this is even more of a problem overseas is because,
in many nations, the phone company is owned by the government, which
has unfettered access to the system. In other countries the legal safeguards
that we have in the United States and the Western world are nonexistent.
You must assume that all telephone and facsimile transmissions from over-
seas are being monitored.
What, therefore, can you do to defeat this type of intelligence gather-
ing? Several products on the market allow for completely secure commu-
nication between individuals. The government has long used these secure
telephone unit, or “STU,” phones to prevent the interception of sensitive
conversations. These phones work by encrypting the signal as it goes
through one phone and decrypting it on the other end. Any attempt to
intercept the conversation will only result in the acquisition of incoherent
electronic noise that cannot be decrypted. The same principle is used for
the secure fax machines and computer e-mail. Many countries, however,
prohibit the use of encrypting equipment within their borders. In such
