What does the media say?

ABC News 20/20

"Our privacy can be invaded, and our conversations bugged, in unexpected ways, in unlikely places, by people we least suspect. There are a number of devices you can buy that say they can detect bugs, and we bought them, and tried them, and they didn't work.

We hired a private detective. (Murray Associates)

We found: he could find bugs - the equipment we tried didn't."

Segment:  "Is Someone Listening?"
John Stossel, with Hugh Downs
Sole Technical Consultant: Kevin D. Murray, CPP

Fortune

"Unless you've done a thorough electronic sweep recently, assume anything you communicate by telex, electronic mail, fax, or phone is up for grabs."

Article: "CORPORATE SPIES SNOOP TO CONQUER"
By:  Brian Dumaine

Business Finance

"What is being reported in the business press," Murray notes, "are only the espionage attempts that have failed. That's probably a very small percentage of what is actually taking place." One study presented to Congress last year found that American companies lose $250 billion each year because competitors get hold of key business information."

Article: Spotting Corporate Spies
By: Eric Krell

PC World

"Privacy is like clean air. At one time there was plenty of it. Now it's almost gone.'"

Quoting: Kevin D. Murray
Article: "You Are For Sale"
By: Jeffrey Rothfeder

Security

"Proper spy busting instrumentation is important, but a successful sweep ultimately depends on the technician's knowledge. For example, if a technician doesn't know fiber optic microphones exist - it may look like fishing line stitched into a carpet or drape - it will be overlooked. The espionage world is full of these surprises.'"

Quoting: Kevin D. Murray
Article: Is Wiretapping Under Way? Listening to Your Intuition
By: Chris Baum

Newsweek

Gus Benquai, an attorney and author on corporate espionage, says, ‘If you're willing to spend the money and criminality doesn't bother you, you can pretty much buy anything you want.'…  Others (industrial sleuths) plant wiretaps or advertise fake job openings..."

Article: "George Smiley Joins the Firm"
By: Dody Tsiantar, John Schwartz,
Bob Cohn, and Lynda Wright

Fortune

"When a company gets hit by a spy, it's like it suddenly has a sexually transmitted disease. Everyone wants something done to prevent it from spreading, but no one wants to talk about it, even though talking about it, sharing the experience, is the only way to make it safer for everyone to do business.'"

Quoting: Kevin D. Murray
Article: China's Spies Target Corporate America
By: Edward A. Robinson

New Jersey Monthly

"Kevin D. Murray... is one of the world's leading experts in tracing and destroying electronic listening devices. He was the man the Canadian government called in, during the height of a scandal several years ago, when some Members of Parliament charged that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had bugged their offices. He found that the office of one M.P. had indeed been bugged, but the bug had been planted by a Canadian detective agency which previously had been contracted to sweep the premises. Murray's counterespionage services are most often requested, however, by American corporations, many of which are increasingly fearful of being infiltrated by industrial spies."

Article: "Private Eyes"
By:  Phillip Longman

SKY Magazine (Delta Airlines)

Protecting phones, faxes, modems, and wires first requires having them examined by an independent eavesdropping detection specialist. This is not a job for a company security director, a private investigator, or security-equipment salespeople calling themselves consultants.

The single bug missed by the person who doesn't know exactly what to look and listen for – a process requiring years of full-time experience – defeats the purpose of any subsequent security measures taken. All that's left is a very dangerous degree of false security.

For the same reasons, you shouldn't do this yourself –  nor should you rely on any of the bug-detecting equipment currently on the market. Although some of this equipment is quite good, no single detection device can locate every type of bug that may be in a room, regardless of the claims some manufacturers make.

...Telephone-Listening Devices: A resistor chip, which is only slightly larger that the eagle's beak on a US quarter, can be installed inside a telephone and pick up all phone, and room, conversations.  …one of the nation's top private-sector eavesdropping detection specialists stresses that this is no longer just the dirty work of the professional techno-spy. Murray, who heads the (Oldwick), New Jersey based counterespionage firm of Murray Associates, emphasizes that chips like these "can be purchased by electronic hobbyists at any electronics specialty store for pennies, as can components for more elaborate listening devices."

Article: "Thwarting the Techno-Spy"
By: Marc Tanzer