Spy Gadgets

Nahshon Roberts


You know you have seen many Hollywood glorifications of spies when you start thinking that all spies, both reel and real, have only noble intentions in committing industrial espionage. Add in impressive mini spy cameras and other gadgets, and everybody looks like James Bond. This is far from the truth.

As a businessman, you will realize that industrial espionage does not only affect your business, not by a long shot. Depending on the extent of spying performed, the methods employed, and the uses to which the stolen information is applied, industrial espionage causes loss of revenue and taxes, loss of direct and indirect jobs, negative impact on the trade balance, and an undermined confidence in personal and corporate security. In short, you will lose money and people.

Spread of Industrial Espionage

Espionage has been around for a long time. Almost all societies have a history of deception and subterfuge, the enduring practice of which attest to the invaluable role espionage has played in building and destroying organizations.

With the advent of modern technology, the methods employed have also improved. The invention of the mini spy cameras has pushed industrial espionage to new heights (or lows, depending on how you look at it), such that it is virtually impossible to prevent intellectual property theft. Indeed, the detection of Internet spies is easier compared to spies who use mini spy cameras to record confidential information.

Methods Employed

To protect yourself against the debilitating effects of industrial espionage, you need to know the methods employed. This is to enable you to adopt countermeasures to lessen its effects.

Eavesdropping is the interception and interpretation of text messages and audio conversations. This is usually done through telephone bugs, e-mail, and instant messaging interception, among others. Of course, there is always the old-fashioned way of literally putting your ears to the walls. However, with highly advanced mini spy cameras with audio capabilities, this old method is somewhat redundant.

Surveillance uses electronic and technological means, just like eavesdropping. In business, you will encounter the use of cleverly-hidden mini spy cameras that record your documents, processes, and people. The first two are of special concern since these are used to gain economic advantage over you.

Suspicious Behaviors

When your employees access computer files and report to the office after normal or authorized working hours, especially in restricted areas, you might have spies in your organization. If it is possible, install hidden mini spy cameras in strategic areas not only to minimize employee theft of properties but more importantly, intellectual property theft. When your employees also report suspicious and unverifiable laptop theft, watch for signs of spying.

As to business associates, be very wary of them when they change personnel at the last minute for sub-contracting projects. Also, be cautious about inviting them to manufacturing and administrative areas unless absolutely necessary; this might be a ploy to acquire a lay-out of the premises and record trade manufacturing secrets.

For visitors, watch out for guests who break away from the tour group. Again, this might be a plan to acquire information.

Armed with information about how you can prevent, or at least minimize, industrial espionage can help you in organizational development. Use the methods and gadgets of industrial spies to your benefit, too.

Nahshon Roberts


It’s three in the morning. Nobody in town is awake except for some hungry bats, a few singing crickets, and a coffee-guzzling security guard inside a factory that is more fortified and secure than Fort Knox. Then suddenly, an intruder appears on the guard’s screen. The trespasser leaps towards the floor of the airtight vault, from overhead air ducts. On instinct, the guard reaches over the control panel, and presses the button. As a blaring sound resonates throughout the entire compound, an army of specially-trained armed guards quickly secure the compound. They surround the intruder, cuff him, and then lead him away.

What had the intruder tried to steal? Top-secret military documents? The blueprints of state-of-the-art data storage technology? The answer is none of the above. What the intruder is after is the secret recipe for Colonel Cluckman’s Famous Fried Chicken! Thanks to wireless spy cameras, however, the colonel’s recipe remains a trade secret.

A Secret Only Dirty in the Telling

A trade secret is any instrument, model, blueprint, or production process that gives a business an edge over the competition. Only a company’s owner and a chosen few are aware of them. Regardless of the form of a trade secret, however, companies must actively prevent them from being leaked. Some do this with the help of tools such as wireless spy cameras.

What qualifies as a trade secret? Several factors should be considered. Trade secrets must involve data of significance to a company, so a CEO’s favorite color or food does not count. Also, revealing trade secrets to the public is only problematic in cases involving some sort of violation. Is buying a competitor’s product and then testing it in a lab to uncover certain trade secrets legal? Yes. Lastly, a formal contract between an employer and an employee is not always needed to protect a trade secret.

Cola Caper

In a recent case of illegal trade secret sharing, two former workers of a major soda producer were sentenced to a federal prison and fined close to $50,000. Their crime? They were caught on tape stealing some of their company’s classified documents and a new product sample. Later, they tried to sell those items to an undercover federal agent.

Questions, Questions

In the aforementioned case, the victim company of trade secret theft announced that its security system would be assessed. In particular, a wireless spy camera can help protect a company’s trade secrets at its first line of defense: the factory. Today, thieves steal not only products from factories but trade secrets as well. Wireless spy cameras help prevent such a theft from occurring. At the same time, it assists in securing the safety of workers and allows monitoring from a remote site. Wireless spy cameras being wireless, they are very easy to install. When creating a system of wireless spy cameras to protect your trade secrets, you should think about the following considerations.

1. What type of security system do you currently have?

2. How large is your factory or factories?

3. Do you produce one or multiple types of products?

4. Is there a huge demand for the products that you produce?

5. Have you had trade secrets stolen in the past?

6. What is the greatest security threat to having trade secrets stolen?

Factory-made Security

After assessing your security needs, you must create a plan to protect your trade secrets with the use of surveillance equipment such as wireless spy cameras. In particular, cameras should monitor visitors, the production area, and storage places.

It is no secret that companies rightfully strive to protect their trade secrets. Wireless spy camera helps them achieve this mission.