The spy rock: data from a stone

Q is facing a challenge to his authority. Like everything else, James Bond’s gadgetmaster has been superseded by the internet, which offers high-tech espionage and counter-espionage equipment to anyone with a web connection.

So British agents may not be the only ones using wireless-enabled boulders to transfer information from secret agents to their controllers. "Cameras can be hidden in anything where space allows," according to the marketing material of K9 Electronics. "The same is true with our range of FM transmitters and UHF transmitters."

A state-controlled Russian TV station broadcast pictures apparently showing agents loitering around the rock while uploading data from their PDAs. "It sounds incredible, but stranger things have happened in the history of espionage," says Jeremy Page, The Times correspondent in Moscow.

In theory, the method ought to have worked well. A short-range wireless connection, similar to the Bluetooth service used by mobile phones, would allow spies to transfer information to each other without physical contact. Although a more powerful signal would have allowed data to be transferred from a greater distance, it may have increased the risk of detection or interception.

Unfortunately, reports suggest that the technology needed perfecting, as Q might have said. The video shows a man fiddling with the electronics concealed within the rock, and carrying it away for repairs.

Glen Daren of K9 Electronics said that although he was not familiar with the details of the story, the concept of the wireless rock sounded plausible. He suggested that his company would be able to create something similar. "We can build things to order," he said, but declined to give details of past orders. "It’s not the kind of thing I can discuss over the telephone. We have confidentiality for clients in this business."

Countless online stores offer surveillance cameras, listening equipment, concealed transmitters and counter-surveillance equipment, most of which is sold on condition that is used within the bounds of the law. According to the terms and conditions at Spystore.co.uk, "products are supplied on the understanding that they are to be exported to countries outside of the European Community." So Russia would be all right, then…

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