Spy games: surveillance and countersurveillance on the web

In an early Bond film, 007 was impressed by a reel-to-reel tape deck small enough to be hidden inside a camera. Forty-five years later, anyone with a few hundred pounds to spare can buy a credit-card sized bug that will sit dormant for months, then spring to life and start transmitting as soon as it hears a voice.

The claim that MI5 listened in on an MP’s conversations has focused attention on the security services and their rules of engagement, but the online trade in surveillance equipment reveals a flourishing community of unregulated freelancers.

Websites such as Spycatcher of Knightsbridge and Eyetek Surveillance sell Bond-style recording devices hidden in watches (£175, pictured), pens (£279) and computer mice (£575). For those wanting pictures too, Spy Equipment UK provides wireless video camera transmitters disguised as clocks (£280), air fresheners (£319, scent included), smoke alarms (£319) or bowls of pot pourri (£250).

With all of these products, the main problem would be getting them within range of the target. Even if you could get yourself invited to your arch-enemy’s lair, he or she is likely to notice an unexplained bowl of pot pourri (and suspicions could be confirmed with one of the many room-sweeping devices on offer). Once up and running , the usefulness of the devices is limited by their battery life.

More practical, and therefore rather more sinister, is Spycatcher’s bug concealed within an electrical socket. The mains-powered device (pictured below), which costs £279, looks identical to a standard socket and can go on listening indefinitely. Spycatcher notes that it cannot legally be used in the EU, but the British three-pin design would have limited use outside the EU. Singapore uses the same sockets, but given that chewing gum is illegal there, being caught with covert surveillance equipment may be imprudent.