How to be comfortably paranoid

[BDK]

i should probably ask folks in O&G, but I will be doing new projects, which will involve very confidential information - the kind where just being able to exclude it in a court room, won't be sufficient.

So, current plans are:

Office/conference room to be lined w a faraday cage - at least one room certainty will.

No electronic devices in that room.

Possibly a computer, without any blue tooth, Internet connection etc used for document storage - wired printer, hard drive, and scanner.

Line the office w a faraday cage/certainly kind the secure conference room.

Possible problems:

A) I need a "secure" method for visitors to lock their cell phones - they have to be comfortable they won't be accessed - and I want to blind those phones so they cannot be recording while stored.

Ideally, some means of notifying the secretary if a phone is ringing so they can interrupt the meeting - only thing I can really think of is the visitor tells people important enough to bother to call him at XYZ - which means mentioning where he is.

There would be benefit in being able to provide an anonymous number.

B). How do you keep the USB drive secure, to carry program updates etc in and out of the closed system?

Say someone has to load a presentation? How to ensure their USB isn't planting something to snoop, and how to assured them the equipment isn't doing the same?

C) VOIP or landline more secure? How to check the handsets?

[Aesop]

If people bring in devices capable of recording, you'll be vulnerable to being recorded.
As for live real-time streaming, it's a huge FCC violation, in a catch-me, f***-me way, but the route to go is a short-range cell-phone jammer inside the room.
If you only ran it when sensitive meetings were actually in progress, the odds it would be detected would probably make the juice worth the squeeze.
(Turning it on at the beginning of a meeting for five minutes, then off, would break any open connections, after which you could likely leave it turned off. Ain't no one chasing down a five minute extremely localized cell interruption in this world unless they're hunting Bin Laden with the budget of the entire NSA. If anyone leaves the room, repeat as necessary.)
If such a building were on the 4th floor of a 9 story building, you're pretty much hosed anyways.
If it's a stand-alone structure on land you'd own, you've got a better shot.
Having people turn in their devices to someone outside would be a better way to go, but unless you're going to TSA-screen people, including the crotch-groping, the person that really wants to get a device in will do so. And that will be the exact person all your other efforts are designed to thwart.
(As any 5000 people who ended up on 60 Minutes, or behind the defendant's table in federal court, or both, would attest.)
I have an HD pen videocam now. The tech is such that you just have to assume that everything in life is live on the news 24/7.
Otherwise you're going to get burned, sooner or later, if not daily.

[PawPaw]

I'd use key-locking drop boxes in another room to secure the cell phones. Each box has a key and the owner takes the key with them into the meeting. Cops use these things at every jail in the US. When the cop goes into the jail, he puts his weapons in the lock box and puts the key in his pocket. When he comes out of the jail, he retrieves his weapons and leaves the key in the door of the box. Very secure.

Edit to add:

Ideally, some means of notifying the secretary if a phone is ringing so they can interrupt the meeting.

Wy? People are too tied to their cell phones now. If you can't be away from the phone for an hour, you're too tied to the device. If you have a meeting that lasts longer than an hour, you don't know how to conduct a meeting. Take your choice.

Paranoia is the unreasonable belief that someone is out to get you. If someone is actually out to get you, you're not paranoid.

[randy]

If you have a true Faraday cage secure room, phones won't be able to connect to anything (such as cell towers) outside the room, so no need for the (admittedly small chance of) potential legal issues with a cell phone jammer.

When you build the room, don't forget the floor.

I'm assuming no windows in the room.

Some quick and dirty thoughts on some of your other issues, may not be practical, feel free to poke holes in them

Set up a bank of lockers at the entrance of the conference room (outside of the shield door). The device owner has the key. Inside each locker is a camera focused so that you can ID the device inside. Hardwired shielded line to monitors in a bank on a wall of the conference room, one monitor per locker. People can see their property the entire time in the room and tell if it is being accessed during the meeting.

Maybe add a light that illuminates and a audible tone whenever a locker door is opened next to each monitor. Some variation of that so they can tell if their phone rings. Have them set the phone to vibrate and have a vibration detector at the bottom of the locker?

Maker sure the computer in the room has whatever the current TEMPEST civilian equivalent shielding on case, monitor and hard drive enclosure.

You might be able to just run the OS from a non-writable CD or DVD drive. Discs are cheap, so you could pop the OS disc and shred it after every meeting (in presence of attendees if you are feeling theatrical), insert a new copy for each meeting. Use Linux and freeware such as Open Office to avoid product key issues. (If truly non-writable, no reason to shred them except for the psychological comfort of attendees)

Variation on this is to wipe the hard drive after every meeting and re-image it with a non-writable disc. Again Linux and open source software to avoid licensing issues on regular "re-installs".

Don't forget a projection system for presentations. Keep all connections hardwired using shielded cables. Or force them back to using hardcopy slides with an overhead projector

For any of this to work, the conference location has to be under the control of a trusted agent, as the person that sets it up could easily build in ways to swipe and store data, but it does make it difficult for someone to infiltrate mal/spyware onto a PC

[randy]

Cross posted with Paw Paw. Great minds...?

[skb12172]

I'd use key-locking drop boxes in another room to secure the cell phones. Each box has a key and the owner takes the key with them into the meeting. Cops use these things at every jail in the US. When the cop goes into the jail, he puts his weapons in the lock box and puts the key in his pocket. When he comes out of the jail, he retrieves his weapons and leaves the key in the door of the box. Very secure.

Edit to add:

Ideally, some means of notifying the secretary if a phone is ringing so they can interrupt the meeting.

Wy? People are too tied to their cell phones now. If you can't be away from the phone for an hour, you're too tied to the device. If you have a meeting that lasts longer than an hour, you don't know how to conduct a meeting. Take your choice.

Paranoia is the unreasonable belief that someone is out to get you. If someone is actually out to get you, you're not paranoid.

The same is true when you take a pre-employment piss test. Except, it's wallet, keys, etc.

[skb12172]

When you build the room, don't forget the floor.

Or ceiling.

[BDK]

Would a metal detector pick up a transmitting device?
I think we'll go w larger lockers for briefcases etc

Any suggestion how to check the AV equipment?
Is there such a thing as a bug sniffer?

Trying to decide how to deal with some areas where there REALLY does not need to be gunfire. The kind of places where "I don't care if they are shooting at you, don't shoot back at XYZ."

[arctictom]

These guys have potential counter measure to any advantage a Faraday cage might have http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/hi-tech ... aday-cage-

[HTRN]

When you build the room, don't forget the floor.

Or ceiling.

Faraday cages with no windows are fairly easy - they make special paints to do it. add a ground strap to ground it to each outlets ground wire... The only possible headache is the door, If it's wood, and requires a wood finish.