from CNN.Com/Sci Tech

Device detects cell phone bugs

Emits a visual and audio warning

June 11, 2002 Posted: 9:25 AM EDT (1325 GMT)

TEL AVIV, Israel (Reuters) -- Imagine your company is holding secret talks to buy another firm when your main competitor suddenly snaps it up from under your nose, apparently aware of all the details of the negotiations.

While you instigate a widespread investigation, the culprit could be nothing more sinister than a cell phone "accidentally" left in the corner of the room, placed in a plant pot or taped under the boardroom table.

With a slight modification, cell phones become high-quality bugs. An owner can call the phone from anywhere in the world without it emitting a ringing tone while its screen remains blank, apparently turned off.

"The beauty of the cell phone as a bug is that it's an innocent looking and ubiquitous object," said Ben Te'eni, co-founder of Netline Communications Technologies, which has developed a device for detecting cell phone communications, especially from cell phones in apparently dormant mode.

"People trust cell phones, but modified and left in idle mode the cell phone can be used as a transmitter for up to a week. If it's connected to a power supply it can provide endless intelligence. Professional bugsweepers will ignore the cell phone frequency since the phones are so common and not suspicious."

The drawback for cell phones and what enables Netline to catch them out, however, is that they periodically transmit a signal to their base station. With Netline's small Cellular Activity Analyzer (CAA) device left in a boardroom before or during crucial meetings, cell phone activity is detected and recorded with a visual and audio warning emitted.

"I can leave the CAA in the office before important meetings and it will tell me if there's a cell phone in the room," Te'eni said. "I can also leave it in the room overnight or for a number of days (after a meeting) to see if a bug has been left behind."

Intelligence background

Like many Israeli high-tech company heads in the telecoms sector, 33-year-old Te'eni and his co-founder Gil Israeli, 34, are graduates of an army intelligence unit. Te'eni was unwilling to elaborate on his army service or Netline's client list.

Having worked for state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries after leaving the army, the pair decided to branch out on their own and set up Netline in 1998.

Their first product was a jamming device that prevents cell phone calls in chosen areas of a building or in the open air, which Te'eni said has been sold to defense agencies of "blue chip governments" around the world.

"The jammer can be used by bomb squads or VIP security services to prevent the detonation of bombs by cell phones," Te'eni said.

"We have also sold to prisons because top criminals are known to continue their operations or coordinate testimony using smuggled-in cell phones. In Brazil, riots were synchronized in five prisons using cell phones and in Paris a prisoner escape was coordinated using cell phones."

Te'eni compared the innocent-looking and simple cell phone with the cardboard cutters used by hijackers of the planes used in the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Both have non-lethal and everyday uses that are positive, but can also make life easier for criminals.

"A phone can remotely activate a bomb or be used for tactical communications such as a terrorist act, bank robbery, hostage situation or kidnapping," Te'eni said. "There are so many negative ways for using cell phones which is why the ability to jam them is crucial."

Passive marketing

Describing Netline's marketing as "passive" -- "customers come to us rather than us going to them" -- Te'eni said much of the firm's sales were from word-of-mouth recommendations.

"There are many security consultants and they know how to find us," he said cryptically, adding that Netline had sales last year of $1 million-$2 million.

As for the future, Te'eni said Netline, like many technology firms in the current global slump, was not "dreaming big dreams" but looking for steady growth as security officers become more open to questioning long-standing operational methods following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"We want to find foreign strategic partners for selling our solutions worldwide to defense and espionage agencies. Security people are second-guessing themselves all the time now so the future looks good," Te'eni added.

Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.