Almost all the pros are under the hood..
Almost all the pros are under the hood
«Capital», Olga Promptova
In the price lists of security companies, these services are hidden behind the wording “checking the reliability of personnel”, “obtaining additional information about an individual”, but in reality, we are talking simply about surveillance of employees whom the company suspects of disclosing commercial secrets.
All professionals are subject to loyalty checks to varying degrees. Recruiters, human resources departments, and company security services check a new employee's previous jobs. Employees of some companies, mainly financial and security firms, are subject to lie detector tests and psychological testing, and their backgrounds are checked against law enforcement databases. More serious (and not entirely legal) methods of checking, such as surveillance and wiretapping, are used on high-ranking employees if their employers suspect someone of leaking classified information or trying to collude with competitors.
The higher a person's position and the more valuable information he handles, the greater his chances of becoming the subject of a more «thorough» check. Such a check at one of the Russian companies helped identify the deputy director of a very large Western firm that wanted to take over a domestic enterprise.
The enterprise's security service began a detailed study of all suspects from the top management after the management began to suspect that there was a leak of confidential information.
«All the methods have been developed,— says a representative of the company's security service, who asked not to be named. — The circle of people who have access to this information is identified, their behavior is analyzed, and an even narrower group is identified. They are monitored for some time: listening and recording equipment».
The investigation bore fruit, the spy was discovered, and the company managed to avoid a takeover.
But sometimes the source of equally important confidential information for competitors may not be a top manager, but a person assisting him, for example, a secretary. Such a case occurred in another Russian company: the head of the company accidentally heard strictly confidential information from a person who should not have known it. The source of the leak was expected to be found in the top management — only top managers had this information.
But, as an employee of the security agency that conducted the investigation said, it turned out that the source of the information leak was not the manager, but a charming, incredibly pleasant secretary who simply brightened the life of the management: all the reviews about her were extremely favorable as a professional and as a person. The employee close to the management absorbed like a sponge everything she heard and saw. Competitors approached the girl and offered her a reward for the information they were interested in. According to experts, wiretapping of telephone conversations is sometimes enough to identify a disloyal employee. People who do not have special training often trust the most confidential information to regular or cell phones without hesitation, not even suspecting how easy it is to intercept their conversations even without installing sophisticated bugs and bookmarks.
If the employee behaves cautiously — does not trust his phone or personal computer with information that could compromise him — then more complex surveillance mechanisms come into play: hidden video recording, external surveillance — up to scanning the vibrations of the glass in his apartment, with the help of which it is possible to listen in on conversations in the room.
According to security experts, an old method is also used to track suspects — the so-called «place of residence installation», when detectives, under a plausible pretext, conduct a survey of neighbors about the person they are interested in. «People among whom we live for quite a long time often do not understand what is happening, but they record changes in a person's behavior, even nuances,» says the expert.
— A person does not think about it, but in fact, neighbors in the yard record even minor changes in a person's behavior, which can give a specialist rich food for thought, — assessments such as: «he began to stay late after work more often», «began to dress richly», «began to drink more», «began to quarrel with his wife», etc.».
Organizing surveillance of employees is an expensive and far from widespread phenomenon: even well-established companies resort to using such methods only when they have serious suspicions about a high-ranking employee. According to representatives of security agencies, only a «basic» check of an individual will cost at least $1,000 per day. Checking with the involvement of people and equipment (wiretapping home and cell phones, viewing pager messages, video recording, etc.) costs much more: $6,000 -10,000. Prices vary depending on the level of the facility, how its security is organized, its modes of transportation, etc.
According to the security service employees themselves, the «development» of suspected employees is contrary to Russian law: only law enforcement agencies with the prosecutor's sanction can organize surveillance of a person or listen in on his or her telephone conversations. And theoretically, a person who notices that he or she is being followed can file a complaint with the police. Although, according to experts, if the work is professional, the person will not notice that he or she is being «followed».
If only people with access to confidential information can count on «increased attention» in the form of surveillance, then practically all company personnel can be subject to such types of control as lie detector tests and psychophysical testing — it all depends on the management policy. And checking the reliability of an employee when hiring is practiced by all recruiting agencies and is then often duplicated by corporate security services.
In security structures, checking an employee against the databases of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB is mandatory for everyone: a person who has ever had problems with the law does not have the right to work in the security and detective spheres. In financial companies, the security service also usually checks the employee's past and even his relatives through its channels: have they had administrative violations, were they under investigation?
Some companies include a clause in the contract with the employee that, at the request of management, he must undergo a lie detector test and/or a psychological test. One regional bank conducts a lie detector test for all employees every six months for preventive purposes.
According to experts, the use of lie detectors by companies is not regulated in any way by Russian legislation, so an employee dismissed based on the results of a polygraph test can challenge this in court and demand compensation for moral damages. However, anyone who refuses this procedure will most likely also be fired or not hired, as it will be decided that he has something to hide.