The latest twist in story of the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange who is holed up the Ecuador Embassy is the discovery of a bugging device, which just happened to be discovered whilst the Ecuador Foreign Minister was in London to discuss the other whistle-blowing fugitive Edward Snowden.
Clearly the device found was a 13amp twin wall socket with a built-in GSM module. This is an item that is sold online at www.spycatcheronline.co.uk for £225.00 (gsmuk2soc) and it is a very efficient way of monitoring conversations, as the unit just comes with its own Sim card and when you want to hear what is going on in a particular area you simply dial in and listen. It is very effective and very covert.
This type of unit is used regularly in corporate or domestic situations when, for whatever reason, one party wants to know what another party is saying. Maybe a company is losing information, or stock, or one partner is suspicious of the other in a marital/ relationship situation. Clearly it is also used in Governmental situations as well.
This form of GSM listening device comes in many different formats. It may be a 13amp adaptor (gsmukada) which you can buy for £226.80, or even a very simple GSM infinity transmitter which you can buy for as little as £120.00 (gsmsig).
This type of monitoring device is used all over the world, a European strip socket (gsmeu6wa) is available for £270.00 or a USA strip socket (gsmus7sock) for £245.00. You can buy any of these on line at www.spycatcheronline.co.uk.
Of course there are just as many people who want to protect themselves against this type of monitoring in which case there are devices to detect GSM bugs. The PR300 (image on the left) is a small hand held unit that will detect any GSM signal. This unit is regularly used for office counter-surveillance sweeps and for checking prison cells to ensure that a cellular phone has not been smuggled in. This unit (detc300) sells for £954.00. Anyone who wants to really cover all monitoring eventualities would probably go for the CSS10 (detc10) which really covers virtually everything but is more expensive at £2,400.00.
We all know that stories are never going to stop about people monitoring other people – it’s the way of the world. As monitoring devices get smaller and cheaper so counter-surveillance becomes more important and the products for detecting monitoring devices just become more and more sophisticated.
