A competitor or adversary wanting to gain information or steal company secrets will normally resort to employing a third party to carry out the illegal operation. In many cases the person or company seeking the information is completely innocent of the methods used by unscrupulous individuals to gain such information merely instructing the third party to find out about ......'such and such'
PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS
Whilst it would be unfair to state that all private detective agencies will carry out industrial espionage, it is nevertheless true, the rogue elements within the industry are normally the culprits for this type of illegal surveillance work. Costs can be very high ranging from £2,000 to £10,000 per week to mount a determined electronic raid but results are virtually guaranteed where the target is unsuspecting and unprepared. At least one of these outfits are highly organised with look-a-like Telecom vans and uniforms to match. They often have counterfeit security passes to dupe the unsuspecting receptionist into allowing access to the telephones or mainframe unit.
Having deceived the receptionist they are normally free to enter individual offices on the pretence of 'checking the phones', at this point it is a simple matter to either 'bug' the target telephone or plant a miniature high technology transmitter in the boardroom.
EMPLOYEES
In a perfect world one would like to think that all staff are loyal, sadly this cannot be relied on. There are many instances of employees eavesdropping management meetings or board meetings to later pass over a transcript of the meeting to competitors, unions or other interested parties.
CLEANERS ETC.
Generally speaking, cleaners are allowed total access to an office building without supervision. From this privileged position it is all too easy for the unscrupulous to bribe such a worker to place a transmitter in an area of interest. The would be interloper just needs to know the time and place of the meeting of interest and the covert transmitter will faithfully transmit every word spoken.