Then there are the features specific to the Guardian’s Kings Place headquarters.
#Laser listening device install
When the CIA used a laser listening device to extract audio from a Russian embassy in the 1960s, they had to install a special miniature prism in an embassy window to solve the issue and redirect the laser back to the listener. Double-glazing caused interference, and finding the right angle to receive the deflected beam proved difficult. Krasnow picked up sound, but the results weren’t brilliant, and his video highlights a number of problems with the technique. “To simulate voices inside, I used an audio commentary track off the end of a Jethro Tull album," he says, "and used a sound meter to get about 70 decibels of average volume near the window.” Ben Krasnow built one in his garden, for example. That sounds pretty simple, and you don’t have to google very extensively to find all sorts of instructions for building laser microphone and voice extraction systems. In theory, a spy could stake out a position near the building, shine a laser beam at the window, pick up the reflected beam on a detector and reconstruct the original sound waves from the minute changes caused by the vibrating window. These vibrations are imperceptible to the human eye, but they can be picked up by something more sensitive, like a laser beam. When these waves impact a window, they cause it to vibrate a little.
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if claims that a functioning alcoholic in a tailored suit was capable of parking an invisible DB7 directly inside Rusbridger's office were met with a congenial response of, "Yup, that seems plausible."īut does the agent's plastic cup assertion hold any truth? Well, the physics are pretty straightforward when we speak, we create sound waves in the air around us. People brought up on a diet of Bond and Bourne tend to wildly overestimate the capabilities of our intelligence services. It’s testament to the CSI effect that most people didn’t even bat an eyelid in response to this claim.
#Laser listening device windows
Rusbridger was also informed that "vibrations on windows could similarly be monitored remotely by laser". The Guardian say they were told that, "if there was a plastic cup in the room where the work was being carried out, foreign agents could train a laser on it to pick up the vibrations of what was being said". But the Guardian explained that this would be impossible, as the files weren't stored on any kind of network or system, merely residing in isolation on individual hard drives.Īfter this, an "intelligence agency expert" turned up to explain why the files were still at risk. The first was that foreign spies – from China or Russia, in particular – might hack into the Guardian's IT network and steal the files. British intelligence had apparently raised a number of concerns about the files being stored at Guardian HQ.
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