What You Need to Know About Electronic Eavesdropping (and How to Shield Against it)

About Electronic Eavesdropping – As a child, you may have pressed your ear against a wall or room door to see if you could listen in on a private conversation between family members or friends. Back in the days of home phones, maybe you picked up the receiver in a bedroom room to listen to a family member’s conversation on the line in another room.

The bottom line is that people are naturally nosey – and while the instances that we outlined above tend to be harmless enough, there’s a type of eavesdropping that can inflict serious damage if it’s not properly safeguarded against. It’s known as electronic eavesdropping – and it’s the practice of secretly infiltrating devices via radio frequency emissions to further infiltrate systems and obtain confidential data.

Unlike the examples we outlined in the intro, electronic eavesdropping can have very serious consequences for any business that doesn’t take the proper measures to prevent it from happening. Read on to learn more about electronic eavesdropping and what you can do to prevent it:

How It Occurs

Also known as electromagnetic eavesdropping, electronic eavesdropping is the practice of intercepting signals from electronic devices to infiltrate systems. Devices like computers, microphones, phones, recorders and Bluetooth devices often emit electromagnetic signals. And while in a perfect world, these signals don’t extend beyond the office environment, that’s not always the case. If you think there wouldn’t be someone with ill intentions looking to intercept these signals outside of your office, that too is not always the case.

Should someone intercept such signals, they could infiltrate an entity’s systems, potentially risking access to confidential data, trade secrets, intellectual property, employee information and more. These unauthorized attacks could all have a major impact on a business’s bottom line, public perception and credibility. The good news is that there are several simple, cost-effective ways to protect your business and its confidential information from electronic eavesdropping. We’ll take a closer look at these solutions in the next section.

How to Mitigate Electronic Eavesdropping

There are many solutions and RF products to help businesses prevent this unauthorized surveillance and ensure that their data is kept safe and secure. Here’s a closer look at what you can do around the office:

Install RF Film For Electromagnetic Shielding

RF window film mitigates radio frequency signals from traveling through windowpanes – a key area of escape in the office setting. Films from Signals Defense are designed to meet even the most stringent U.S. intelligence standards, ensuring premium quality for any facility that handles classified information or confidential data.

RF window films are thin, easily installed right on the surface of the window and don’t impact the overall aesthetic of the window and the greater vibe of the room. Some types of RF films also have value-added benefits, such as glass fragmentation control and blast protection, reducing UV and solar emissions and more.

At Signals Defense, our optically clear SD2500/2510 RF film has an average RF attenuation of 40db and less than a 1% IR (infrared) transmission meeting the Infrared and Radio Frequency Emanation Protection Standards.

RF or Radiant Barrier Foil as an Electromagnetic Barrier

RF foils reduce electromagnetic signals from passing through solid barriers – like walls, ceilings or floors – as part of a complete protective solution for your office or for select rooms or areas, like SCIFs. At Signals Defense, we’re proud to be an authorized dealer of Ultra NT Radiant Barrier rFoil – and we’ll help you maximize coverage by assisting you with installation techniques.

In addition to blocking electromagnetic signals, RF foil also helps increase sound attenuation and insulating properties.

RF or EMF Paint to prevent Electronic Eavesdropping

In addition to foils and films, there are several other products your facility can use to help prevent electromagnetic eavesdropping. These include paints, paper, tapes and even caulk<https://signalsdefense.com/rf-shielding-products/>.

RF Paints, for instance, work with films and foils to offer complementary protection and can be easily applied on new or existing walls and other spaces. Other products like conductive tape and RF caulk are used in conjunction with films and foils, they can help provide protection from eavesdropping threats.