Are any of the devices sold on the internet really any good for detecting bugs, or spy cameras that may be in your office?

i am also looking for a similar device.

Eyeballs and fingers. Seriously, the only way you will find the things is to do a physical inspection.
If you want to waste money on one of those "detectors" you find on the internet, go ahead. You *MIGHT* get an indication of something in the area. Oops, that was you cell phone. Nope, that one is your cordless phone. What's this? The bug is outside? Oh, that's the neighbor's CB radio. OMG! It's inside my computer! Oh wait, that's just the internal clock.
RF detectors are nearly worthless. OK, if you know how to use it you can probably find a general area for where the RF signal is coming from, but you will still need other equipment to narrow it down and find out what it is.

Oh, and then 5 years later you find out that it was a wired bug that doesn't transmit...

If anyone is "bugging" you and they don't work for the govt, their range will be severely limited and you will probably have an easier time of finding the guy outside your house listening to the bug. Govt or someone with money to spend on real gear, you will probably never notice.

Quoted: Eyeballs and fingers. Seriously, the only way you will find the things is to do a physical inspection. If you want to waste money on one of those "detectors" you find on the internet, go ahead. You *MIGHT* get an indication of something in the area. Oops, that was you cell phone. Nope, that one is your cordless phone. What's this? The bug is outside? Oh, that's the neighbor's CB radio. OMG! It's inside my computer! Oh wait, that's just the internal clock. RF detectors are nearly worthless. OK, if you know how to use it you can probably find a general area for where the RF signal is coming from, but you will still need other equipment to narrow it down and find out what it is. Oh, and then 5 years later you find out that it was a wired bug that doesn't transmit... If anyone is "bugging" you and they don't work for the govt, their range will be severely limited and you will probably have an easier time of finding the guy outside your house listening to the bug. Govt or someone with money to spend on real gear, you will probably never notice.

From the "Urban Master 2" video:

You can find a hidden camera.  By holding a very bright flashlight against the side of your head.  Get the light as close to your eye as possible and scan slowly around the room.

You will be looking for a dot of reflected light from inside the camera.

Hidden spy cameras need two things to be useful to the watcher. One is a power source the other is either a coax to a recording/viewing device or an onboard recorder. It is easy to hide the camera. It is not so easy to hide the power supply and the recording device.

IP cameras make it a lot easier. Some of them are powered from the cat 5 cable and send the image back to a network.

Get up in the drop ceiling and look around. Most common places to hide the camera include smoke detector, ceiling speaker, vent, clock, your computer speaker, a box or container sitting on a shelf, a locked file cabinet, art work. If a new smoke detector shows up or there is more than one in a small area start there.

At my office, "Bob and Sally" would use the corner office for after work fun- The office was empty.  They would leave evidence on the table or desk and my boss wanted to catch the cheaters.

He ordered a lamp with a camera in the base and put it in the room.  The recorder was in a locked file cabinet.

Within two days, he knew who had left the evidence and showed them his.  They stopped using the room and both of them work some where else.  The special lamp is by the front desk and it serves as a security camera to see when the cleaning people come and go.

I'd say anything with a small hole and a power cord that looks too fat could be a camera.  If its wireless-I don't have a clue

Quoted: RF detectors are nearly worthless. OK, if you know how to use it you can probably find a general area for where the RF signal is coming from, but you will still need other equipment to narrow it down and find out what it is.

with the proper equipment it's trivial.

ar-jedi

Right equpment! Show off!

RS

So... with an Altoids tin, some BNC, and a power cable I can detect a spectrum analyzer?  That's pretty  cool...

wanna explain what's going on in that pic?  Curious minds want to know...

-WhyTanFox

  Anyone with the resorces to plant a mic or camera will probably have
the resources to use other unconventional methods that you haven't thought
of yet, unless you've had some type of TSCM experience or other
countersurveillance training.  

 

Quoted: So... with an Altoids tin, some BNC, and a power cable I can detect a spectrum analyzer?  That's pretty  cool...

heh heh heh.  

Quoted: wanna explain what's going on in that pic?  Curious minds want to know...

inside the Altoids tin is a 1st generation "PocketTracker" from Byonics.  this is an "APRS in a tin" solution, which i built up from a kit in an afternoon a few years ago.  basically, you connect a handheld GPS (which provides the position data) to the PocketTracker (PT), and the PT then periodically transmits your callsign and the GPS position info on the national APRS frequency (144.390MHz FM).  moments later, your current position can be see on APRS mapping websites such as FindU and others...
www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=KC2QPO-9 <-- not my callsign, BTW.

as your vehicle moves, the PT provides new data to the APRS system -- and your position on the map is updated accordingly.

for an idea of how many active APRS users are in my general area,
mm.aprs.net/map.cgi?map=APRSworld&lat=40.4405&lon=-74.1754&call=*&range=.75
note that this information is updated every 3 minutes, so it is always "current".

PocketTracker info (legacy version):
www.byonics.com/pockettracker/

construction pic:
losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/ham/PocketTracker/DSCN1167_sm.jpg

completed pic:
losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/ham/PocketTracker/DSCN1536_sm.jpg

now then, once you get done with construction, through the magic of a DPLL (digital phase locked loop) and due attention to design of the RF layout, this device is supposed to make ~200mW at 144.390MHz without any tuning whatsoever -- according to the folks at Byonics.  i, of course, did not believe them.  not that i didn't trust them, i just wanted to see for myself.

enter the spectrum analyzer (SA).  

an SA is the tool of choice for making frequency domain measurements, and can also double for a few other functions. more on that in a moment.

as you can see from the picture,
losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/ham/PocketTracker/DSCN1534_sm.jpg
the RF output of the PocketTracker is connected via a short patch to the SA input -- but not directly.  since i would have faced death-by-tires had i blown up the front end of this not-inexpensive SA, i used a 30dB in-line attenuator (aka "pad") to make sure; that's the blue colored cylinder that the patch cord is draped over.  (side note: always put the input protection device right at the faceplate of the lab instrument, this makes it harder to accidentally leave it out of the circuit if you are tweaking the signal source).  

with the setup as described above, and the PT in a special no-FM test mode (configured by a jumper on the board), the RF output of the PT is displayed on the SA.  the basics of spectrum analyzer configuration include setting the frequency range of interest, and specifying a parameter known as the resolution bandwidth.  there is an inherent tradeoff between sweep speed and resolution bandwidth, among other things.

power output and frequency can be determined from the following:


the peak hold "marker" is at 144.407MHz, which is not exact but that is a function of the wide resolution bandwidth (30KHz) i had specified during this part of the test.  the marker amplitude is -7.00dBm.  hmm, what does that tell us?

we know that
0dBm = 1mW (1 milliwatt, or 0.001 watt)

we also know that there is 30dB of attenuation in front of the SA.  so, we have to first take that into account before figuring out the power.  -7dBm + 30dB = +23dBm.  and, 23dBm happens to be 200mW.  <-- which is exactly what we should be getting!  (10 x log(200mW) = 23dBm).  

ps:
when the PT is transmitting FM, you see this spectra:
losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/ham/PocketTracker/DSCN1514_sm.jpg

ar-jedi

What ar-jedi said, I knew that....lmao

Quoted: I knew that

next, you should learn how to delete everything unneeded in the quoted text.  
folks just read it all.  they don't need to read it all again.

ar-jedi

That's above my head. Guess I may just have to hire that job out if I continue to have problems. Thanks

If you have a spectrum analyzer, a useful trick to find a low power transmitter in a room, etc, is to use 2 antennas, one remote and away, maybe a hundred feet or so from the target area and another on a cable that you use to probe with.

The trick is to store one channel with the spectrum from the remote antenna and then probe around the target area looking for a stronger spike that isn't visible or too strong in the stored trace.

This is primarily for higher freq transmitters, but they can be anywhere from almost DC to light in frequency.

I remember one time I was testing an analyzer design and was looking for bugs in the engineering area just for funsies. But I found something at about 300 mc! After screwing around for 1/2 an hour thinking I was really on to something, I found a UHF remote control that someone had put up on a shelf and a book had fallen over on w/in the past day or so.

Quoted: That's above my head. Guess I may just have to hire that job out if I continue to have problems. Thanks

Not really, explain your problem and we may be able to help.

If it's your own private business then do what's necessary. The first thing I would do is make sure not to use a cordless or cellular phone.

Is your business in your home? Are you going through a divorce?

Have you checked your telephone extensions for extra telephones or recording devices or answering machines? Do you have a baby monitor in the area? Any virus's/ad ware/key stroke loggers on your computer?

If it's not your own business and you work for an employer then he may be able to legally monitor you for productivity and security purposes depending on your state laws. You may jeopardize your job if go disable a company monitoring device.

Here's some very basic info:

Link #1

Link #2

I don't have any interest and I don't recommend the above firms. The links are for informational purposes only.

Good luck!