It is said that sometimes, the simplest solution is sitting right there in front of you without you realizing it – until much later, that is. Take for instance, the world of industrial espionage where modern day “ninjas” armed not with deadly poison laced shurikens and have the ability to disappear in a puff of smoke, but rather, holding phones with cameras, capturing sensitive information of upcoming devices, or even eavesdropping on a meeting by planting bugs or some other devious methods. Apart from banning employees from using phones with cameras, what other ways are there to prevent industrial espionage? Trust the Germans to come up with an efficient method that is cheap to boot – a German chemicals company has ordered its managers recently to stash away their mobile phones in biscuit tins during meetings so that industrial espionage can be prevented.
Alexandra Boy, spokeswoman for Essen-based speciality chemicals maker Evonik, says that “experts have told us that mobile phones are being eavesdropped on more and more, even when they are switched off. The measure applies mostly when sensitive issues are being discussed, for the most part in research and development.”
Why biscuit tins? They have a tendency to result in the so-called Farraday cage effect, where it will block out electromagnetic radiation so that folks cannot hack into phones – not only for calls but also to get hold of emails. Hopefully the tin is empty, otherwise hungry and foraging hands will open it up during a meeting, leaving a door open to hacking.
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