Firm takes fight to ‘camsnufflers’
The following article was published in Business 550, January 2006. The text has been edited for use on this website.
A Birmingham firm has been swamped by a wave of transatlantic calls for help to halt an increase in corporate data theft.
Icomm helps out US firms
Birmingham based IT service and support provider Icomm Technologies has received a flurry of calls from US companies after highlighting the practice of “camsnuffling” to the world before Christmas.
Icomm highlighted the activity, which involves corporate data theft via a digital camera, in December. It was promptly picked up by the Wall Street Journal, who raised the issue in an IT security feature.
Ian Callens, Icomm Sales Manager
We have received a huge amount of correspondence from US firms over the past few months, posing questions on how to counter it [camsnuffling].
Now, staff at Icomm’s city centre headquarters in Birmingham are being inundated with calls from firms across the East Coast of America, requesting advice and guidance on the issue.
Icomm’s Ian Callens said: “We raised this issue last year after a number of SMEs approached us when they discovered members of staff were apprehending a range of corporate data from company databases.
“The method was simple. They plugged a digital camera into the USB port of their PC and downloaded reams of information.
“Many businesses now use digital cameras and spotting illegitimate use is very hard. And, due to their extensive storage, facility, this makes them ideal repositories of illicit information.
“It quickly came to light that camsnufflers were prevalent overseas too, particularly in America where disgruntled members of staff were using digital cameras to side-step security measures.
“We have received a huge amount of correspondence from US firms over the past few months, posing questions on how to counter it.
Icomm leads the way
“We are one of the area’s leading service and support providers so it was at first unusual to swap the Nuneaton accent for that of a New York one! But it appears that the majority of issues raised are very similar to that of our UK based customers.”
Companies who have fallen prey to camsnufflers include an architectural firm and an IT company.
