A sophisticated bugging device has been found in a hotel meeting room in the Intercontinental Hotel in Double Bay, Australia, used by the New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks. This comes just ahead of the Bledisloe Cup rugby clash between the New Zealand team and the Australian team, the Wallabies.
The InterContinental Hotel, where a bug was found in the All Blacks team meeting room. Photo:Brett Phibbs
Reports indicate that the All Blacks team has regular TSCM bug sweeps performed. “A listening device was found in a meeting room this week during a routine security check,” New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew said.
The cushion of the seat had been cut and the surveillance device inserted. The seat had been put back together so the location of the device was almost undetectable.
Sweeping a hotel meeting room for electronic devices.
It was discovered after team management asked the security detail to sweep the hotel room for bugs.
The All Blacks suspected some of their team rooms may have been bugged during last year’s World Cup in England but they didn’t have the sort of sophisticated equipment they needed to detect any listening devices.
In Sydney, they had access to high level equipment and were able to detect the planted device – but that was after they had held a team meeting in their off-limits room the night before.
They had a previous experience of information potentially being leaked from their hotel team room. Back in 2013, while staying at London’s Royal Garden Hotel, the All Blacks discovered that someone from a British newspaper had seen various tactical material written on a whiteboard.
Sports teams, executives, celebrities, and anyone discussing confidential information should take sweep inspections seriously and should have them performed regularly by a professional TSCM team.