Corporate Technical Intelligence · Pittsburgh, PA
Some corporate risk is not in the systems. It is in the room.
Networks are monitored. Endpoints are managed. Access is logged. What is rarely examined is the physical and radio-frequency environment those systems sit inside: the conference room, the executive office, the vehicle, the hotel suite where the negotiation actually happens.
Empire inspects that environment, documents what was examined, and reports findings in a form your counsel and your security team can both use.
Request a Confidential ConsultationThe Trigger
When companies call
- Before a board meeting or negotiation
- The room, the devices in it, and the spaces adjacent to it are inspected ahead of a session that a competitor or counterparty would pay to hear.
- After an executive departure
- Offices, vehicles and conference spaces used by a departing executive are examined before they are reassigned.
- After contractors, maintenance or renovation
- Any period of unescorted access to a sensitive space is a reason to re-establish the baseline afterward.
- When information has appeared somewhere it shouldn't
- A technical inspection establishes whether a device is involved, which determines how the rest of the investigation is run.
- On a recurring schedule, as policy
- Boards and insurers increasingly expect an organization to be able to show that its sensitive environments are checked, not assumed clean.
Scope
What is inspected
The environments below are the ones corporate engagements most often cover. The written scope names exactly which of them are included, and which are not.
- Offices and executive suites
- Individual offices, adjoining spaces, furniture, fixtures and fittings.
- Boardrooms and conference facilities
- The room itself, the AV and conferencing equipment in it, and the spaces on the other side of its walls.
- Vehicles
- Executive and fleet vehicles, for both recording and tracking devices.
- Network and wireless environment
- The radio-frequency environment of the space, reviewed alongside your own security team or provider.
- Communications equipment
- Telephony, conferencing hardware and the cabling paths that serve them.
How We Work
Methodology
Empire has invested well over $1 million in professional countermeasure and investigative equipment. Equipment is half of it. The other half is knowing the order to use it in, and documenting the result so it survives someone checking.
Authorized written scope
What will be examined, who authorized it, and who is entitled to receive the findings. No fieldwork begins before this is agreed.
Physical inspection
Detailed inspection of the space, its furniture, fixtures and the surrounding environment.
RF spectrum analysis
Calibrated broadband detection of radio-frequency transmissions, hidden signals and electronic anomalies within the environment.
Non-linear junction detection
NLJD locates electronic components even when a device is powered off or inactive, which RF detection alone cannot do.
Optical and thermal inspection
Lens detection for concealed cameras, plus heat signatures and visual irregularities that suggest a device is present.
Written documentation
What was examined, what was found, what was not examined and why. Findings are delivered to the recipients named in the scope.
An inspection establishes what was found in a defined environment at a point in time. It does not make a space permanently secure, and no professional will tell you it does. That limit is stated in the report, not buried in it.
The Handoff
Coordination with your security team
We are not a replacement for your IT or managed security provider, and we will not pretend to be. The division of labor is worth stating plainly before an engagement, not after.
What Empire does
Inspects the physical and radio-frequency environment: the room, the furniture, the vehicles, the devices present in the space, and the signals in it. Documents the inspection to a standard your counsel can use.
What your IT or security provider does
Owns the network, the endpoints, the logs and the controls. They remain the authority on everything inside the systems.
Where the two meet
A device in a room usually has to reach a network or a carrier to be useful to whoever placed it. We share findings with your security team on your instruction, and defer to qualified cyber specialists on network analysis rather than substituting for them.
The Deliverable
What you receive
The purpose of an investigation is not activity. It is a document you can make a decision from.
- A written report, structured for scrutiny
- Findings are set out so that established fact is distinguished from professional assessment, and both are distinguished from what remains unknown. Where evidence is collected, chain-of-custody documentation accompanies it.
- A defined scope, agreed before fieldwork begins
- You approve what will be examined, who is authorized to receive findings, and what falls outside the engagement. Scope changes are discussed, not assumed.
- One accountable investigator
- A licensed Pennsylvania private detective is responsible for the file from intake to delivery. Work is not passed down to subcontractors you have not met.
- Restricted distribution
- Reporting goes to the recipients you name and no one else. Where counsel directs the engagement, findings are delivered to counsel.
- A clear statement of limits
- No investigation establishes everything. A report that claims certainty it has not earned is worse than useless in a proceeding. We tell you what we could not determine and why.
Ongoing
Recurring programs
One inspection is a dated baseline. Access changes, people leave, rooms get refurbished, and devices get cheaper every year.
- Quarterly or semiannual
- Executive areas, boardrooms and the communications environment, re-inspected on a fixed cycle with written findings each time.
- Event-triggered
- Board changes, acquisitions, departures, facility moves, renovations, or a major negotiation.
- Annual, as policy
- A documented baseline for boards, insurers and counsel that need to show the question is asked regularly.
Confidential Inquiry
Speak Directly with an Investigator
Technical engagements are scoped in a single conversation. If a device has already been found, say so when you call and leave it exactly where it is.
Questions
Corporate Technical Intelligence FAQs
How is a corporate sweep different from a residential bug sweep?
The equipment overlaps. The engagement does not. Corporate work involves an authorized written scope, a defined list of who may receive findings, coordination with in-house security or counsel, and documentation structured for a proceeding rather than for personal reassurance. In many corporate matters the inspection is one part of a wider investigation rather than the whole engagement.
Will an inspection guarantee our boardroom is secure?
No, and any firm that tells you otherwise is selling something. An inspection establishes a documented baseline at a point in time: what was examined, what was found, and what was not covered. Security is a function of what happens between inspections, which is why recurring programs exist and why the scope states its own limits.
Do you replace our IT security team?
No. Your IT or managed security provider owns the network, the endpoints and the logs. We inspect the physical and radio-frequency environment those systems sit inside, which is generally outside their tooling. Where network analysis is required, we coordinate with qualified specialists rather than claiming that capability ourselves.
Can the inspection be done without staff knowing?
Usually yes. Corporate inspections are commonly scheduled outside business hours, with unmarked arrival and a cover arrangement agreed in advance. Where a matter is under investigation, limiting who knows about the inspection is often as important as the inspection itself.
What happens if you find something?
We stop and preserve. A discovered device is evidence, and how it is handled in the first hour determines whether it stays evidence. We document it in place, advise on notification of counsel and law enforcement, and coordinate the next steps with the recipients named in your scope.