Granite Island Group

Terms and Conditions

Granite Island Group specializes in highly sensitive pinnacle level "bug sweeps" and wiretap detection. We have legitimate TSCM training, extensive credentials, and sophisticated equipment. Our chief engineer is the internationally recognized leader in this field.

When many world governments need help in this field, they call Granite Island Group first, and when CEO's of Fortune 500 companies need a bug sweep, cybersecurity, or computer forensics work, they call Granite Island Group first.

When attorneys are working on highly complex civil or criminal cases, they call on Granite Island Group, First... as we can provide a level of technical and scientific expertise and abilities, not found elsewhere in the country.

Indeed, Congress itself, calls of Granite Island Group to perform bug sweeps, and to analyze scientific documents, and to ferret corruption with defense and intelligence contractors and by perform scientific analysis to to identify government employees who are engaging in espionage against the United States.

A well known fact within the TSCM and counter-espionage industry is that Granite Island Group has actually caught more spies inside the United States, than the entire FBI has found in the entire lifetime of the FBI...

FBI uses Granite Island Group software to detect spies inside their own ranks, and many spies busted inside the FBI were solely caught and convicted based on the goods and services of Granite Island Group.

Basic Daily Rates, per person

Commercial Locations within New England
$25,000 for an 8-hour day, with a three day minimum

Residential Locations, within New England:
$25,000 - Normal (typical smaller New England Home, under 2500 sq. ft), 12-Hour Residential Inspection (maximum of three rooms)
$50,000 - Medium (typical New England Home, under 4000 sq. ft), 2 Days, (up to six rooms)
$100,000 - Moderate (typical New England Home, up to 5000 sq. ft), 4 Days, (up to eight to ten rooms)
$150,000 - Large (typical New England Home, under 8000 sq. ft), 6 Days, (up to ten to twelve rooms)


Locations outside of New England (3-day minimum on-site)
$25,000 for the first day, plus $25,000 for each additional day

Any U.S. Government project, directly or indirectly (10-day minimum)
$250,000 for the first day, plus $250,000 for each additional day

Any U.S. Government project, in the Middle East, Pacific Rim, Russia, Turkey, China, or Asia (10-day minimum)
$500,000 for the first day, plus $500,000 for each additional day.

Project Expenses

Depending on numerous variables (location, expected eavesdropper retaliation, high secrecy, having to go to a safe-house for all discussions, travel time, conference room rentals, "cubing" a room) and the additional requisite expenses can amount to as high as triple our daily rate. This rarely occurs, but in complex governmental and diplomatic projects that are of the most delicate in nature often there are additional costs that were not considered initially, but must be addressed. Granite Island Group has a Travel and Expense policy that is very generous, as we always include our travel and lodging expenses in the flat daily rate.

Written reports or the production of PowerPoint presentations will be an additional 10%; however, there will be no charge for an oral reports. Meetings in regards to the written report, or PowerPoint presentation will be at the hourly rate of $2,500 per hour, with a four hour minimum. Depositions, preparations to testify, travel related to testifying, delaying in testifying, actual testimony, or being present so as to be able to testify in a matter is a cost of $25,000 per day, billed in half day blocks of time, and payable in advance.

Also available from Granite Island Group via by telephone, computer, or E-mail is detailed consulting or technical writing and analysis at a rate of $2,500 per hour.

Coverage Area

We are available to quickly respond to any location in the Northeastern quadrant of the United States and Canada, including all cities within 500 mile (or one-day drive) of Boston. These cities include: Boston, New York, Providence, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Richmond, Buffalo, Cleveland, and so on.

We have secondary coverage that includes all locations within a five-day drive of Boston. This area starts at Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia then sweeps Northwest to include St. Louis, Springfield, Chicago, Detroit, Lexington, Madison, and most of the central Mid-West area East of the Mississippi. However, sweep services in the State of North Carolina, Nevada, or Washington State, the daily fee is tripled, with a two week lead time.

We can bring a highly sophisticated, well equipped, and portable counter-intelligence electronics laboratory built into a truck (which no other TSCM firm has) to any location in New England in a matter of hours, and within 1500 miles of Boston in a matter of days.

There are only a small number of legitimate and competent TSCM counterintelligence specialists or "Bug Sweepers" in the U.S. private sector. Legitimate TSCM firms are in very high demand, hard to find, and expensive; so be patient when trying to contact either us, or someone else in our profession.

Conflict of Interest

We do not engage in any situation where there may be even the slightest conflict of interest of any kind. If a bug is present we will tell our client truthfully and honestly, if one is not present we will also tell them truthfully. If someone comes to us and asks us to "look the other way" while they install a bug at our clients location, or we are asked to find nothing when in fact there is something... we will always tell our client the truth, period.

We do a huge amount of bug sweeps, TSCM, TDR, technical security, TEMPEST, and similar skills. We also have a diverse client base with whom we are careful of our mutual relationships. We may be called into situations where we work in the same building four times in a six month period, to perform a single office sweep for one of four offices, and we are very careful not to let executive A know that we are in the building doing a sweep for executive B. We are careful to maintain the confidences of each of the individual executives, and to keep their individual private matters in secret.

If we accept money from a client, we will be working only for that client and only on behalf of that client, and for nobody else. We will only work on behalf of that clients best interest when performing all work, and will discuss the project with nobody except that client. This is important as many/most sweep firms routinely betray their clients, reveal their confidences, and report everything they see and do back to law enforcement authorities, the media, and the eavesdroppers... We do not do this, and have never done this.

We do not play both sides of the coin, and we do not have conflicts of interest, ever.

We only provide services to U.S. Citizens and to specific government agencies. The only proof that we can accept that you are a U.S. Citizen is that of an unexpired U.S. Passport or Passport card.

We Are Not Attorneys, Physicians, Social Workers, or Clergy

We are not attorneys and cannot tell you whether it is legal or illegal for you to monitor your own phones, your spouses cell phone, monitor your kids, or eavesdrop on your on business. Always call a competent licensed attorney for legal advice. We are electronics engineers, not lawyers. If you would like to consult with an attorney who is an expert in this subject matter, then we are happy to provide you with the contact data for one, and if you prefer we can get you in touch with an competent attorney who is also an TSCM expert. Such a legal expert (in regards to TSCM, counter-intelligence, and counter-surveillance tradecraft) typically runs about $25,000 per day for on-site consultations, or $2,500 per hour for consultations by phone. If you wish for us to bring an attorney in to assist with the project in any way, you will need to add at last $7500 per day to the project.

In an optimal situation, your attorney will reach out to us and engage us, and will place us under an engagement letter, and a non-disclosure agreement, and a fiduciary agreement, and we will work for your attorney, and not for you directly (his is to protect you) This provide you with the ideal level of protections, and provides you with the greatest level of service.

Without exception, we do not perform eavesdropping services, nor do we teach people how to perform eavesdropping nor do we sell surveillance equipment to anyone AND WE WILL NOT REFER YOU TO ANYONE WHO DOES. We are electronics engineers, not eavesdroppers. Additionally, we refuse to provide any goods or services to any U.S. Government agency who we know or have good reason to suspect has/is directly engaging in surveillance or intelligence activities against U.S. Citizens in contravention of the Constitution of the United States, and the Amendments thereof.

If you are having physical aliments due to eavesdropping then you should contact a physician, and deal only with a physician and your attorney until the medical problems are resolved. Please do not contact us seeking free medical advice as we are not physicians. While it is normal to be anxious and stressed about being the victim of eavesdropping, the presentation of physical problems is a medical concern and not a technical one (we deal with technical matters, not medical ones). If you are concerned about electronic bugs, then please give us a call.

Price and Value of Things

Rates are non-negotiable and reflect the decades of experience, cost of the our time, investment in equipment acquisition and maintenance, hundreds of hours of in-service training each year, travel, administrative and communications time and expense to coordinate the sweep and written report, plus a fair profit for our services.

It is very unwise to shop for sweeps by using price as a criterion as it only invites getting ripped off. Legitimate TSCM professionals are not interested in, nor will they engage in negotiating for a significantly lower price. When you contact us, you are talking with someone in the same league as an attorney, scientist, or surgeon, not a Spy Shop salesman, unemployed cop, prison guard, or James Bond wanna-be. We have more time in our specialized training than do most attorneys or medical professionals. Please see our page on how to recognize a legitimate TSCM service provider.

Anything beyond an initial phone call usually will be billable time. Attorneys and doctors don't consult for free, and neither do we. If a potential client calls with a long list of questions not pertaining directly to hiring the practitioner, or wants to know how to do his own sweep, or wants to know how to use the sweep kit he bought on his own, expect to pay an hourly rate in advance for consulting services.

It is also important you understand that legitimate services by a competent TSCM firm rarely start at less than several thousand dollars for even a basic sweep.

Some Basic Numbers

Granite Island Group offers fully instrumented services, which utilize highly sophisticated laboratory grade equipment for flat daily fee.

Typical low threat corporate and private residential sweeps require eight to ten hours on-site.

There is a 24-hour (or three days) on-site minimum for medium threat, fully instrumented corporate sweep work. This is our most commonly requested corporate or small estate engagement.

Fully instrumented, higher threat corporate or government sweeps require a minimum of 10 to 15 days on-site for completion.

Corporate Bug Sweeps (within New England)

A quick, low cost, and low threat, tightly focused "Bug Sweep" involving one small area, office, or an area of a home (inside the Boston/Rt 495 area) normally requires eight to ten hours on-site for completion (plus several hours off-site in advance of the project beginning). This type of TSCM service only involves a brief inspection of the airwaves, power lines, and telephone lines for obvious eavesdropping signals, simple TDR inspection of the telephones lines, and a basic inspection of the telephone instrument. This inspection may also include an optional examination of the physical security of an area. A "Quick Check Bug Sweep" such as this should only be used when time is limited, or when the budget will not allow a more comprehensive inspection.

Medium Threat Bug Sweeps (within New England)

A small medium threat corporate TSCM inspection involving two executive offices, and one conference room will normally require two to three days for completion. A more typical medium threat corporate TSCM inspection involving 3-4 executive offices, and one conference room will normally requires three to five days on-site for completion.

High Threat TSCM Inspection "Bug Sweep"

This type TSCM inspection or comprehensive bug sweep typically requires five to seven days or more on-site to complete and is extremely comprehensive.

Motor Vehicles

A low threat TSCM inspection performed on a standard, non-luxury motor vehicle will require four to ten hours per vehicle (depending on the vehicle). Examinations of luxury vehicles, larger SUVs, motor coaches, boats, and similar motor vehicles will usually involve several days at a higher cost.

Should a client require a full, detailed inspection that requires more then four hours of work or an assignment that requires partial vehicle dismantling, we do offer an option to have the vehicle picked and dropped off from any location in New England and brought to a fully equipped facility by a specially shielded truck that will render the vehicle movement invisible to any tracking devices. Essentially, the vehicle will be trackable only to the initial pickup time and location, and no further.

Recurring Inspections

Granite Island Group also offers a program of recurring TSCM inspections at a reduced daily rate with a pre-paid retainer. Typically these inspections can be performed on a random, monthly, or quarterly basis.

To properly secure a single executive office for corporate or government clients we recommend three to four sweeps per year. These sweeps should be evenly spaced out on a quasi-random basis, including one annual comprehensive (five to seven day) sweep and an annual or quarterly comprehensive physical security audit.

Budget Numbers (outside of New England)

We offer sweep services to any location within a two-day drive or 1200-mile radius of Boston, and will typically respond with a full complement of sophisticated laboratory grade TSCM equipment.

For work outside New England, but within a 1200-mile radius there is a minimum charge of three days on-site.

A TSCM inspection of a typical medium threat corporate office in the Mid-West, South, or South East (which involves more than a one-day drive in each direction) will normally require three full days on-site to complete. An example of this would be a corporate sweep in Atlanta, Chicago, Richmond, Detroit, St. Louis, and similar cities located more then one or two day from Boston.

Other Services

Our firm also provides several related technical services such as high precision time domain reflectometry, cable locating and certification, underground fault location, and sophisticated RF surveys including, but not limited to pager, cellular, PCS, and broadcast station coverage area surveys and mapping. We also offer services to identify; trace, and locate interfering radio signals or noise that may be disrupting communications.

We also have an hourly consultation rate with a 4 hour minimum, which includes: security surveys, threat assessment, network audits, assistance in planning a TSCM program, and so on. This includes non-instrumented TSCM, technical security, engineering, vulnerability analysis, and related consulting services.

Private consultation is also available via telephone, with a quarter hour minimum (Telephone consultations, technical research, report writing, etc....) All written reports, research, and related activities will be billed at an hourly rate with a one-hour minimum.

Granite Island Group is available to assist attorneys and investigators with discovery, coaching while taking depositions, technical consultation, and research for an hourly fee (paid in advance). We can also consult with you or your practice concerning case law and statutes concerning the finer points of eavesdropping laws, and can coach you on how to debunk expert witnesses and find holes and deceptions in their claims. We have provided this service to Congress and will be happy to assist you as well.

Forensic identification of a suspected eavesdropping device is available for a flat fee (but only for a successful match). A hard copy report is also available but for an additional hourly fee. To facilitate such identification simply send us an E-mail describing what was found (please attach a photo of the device, if available). Please include dimensions of the device, including the wire lengths, battery type and so on. The fee is $250 for a short one paragraph description, or $2500 for anything beyond one paragraph.

Travel

Our services are available nationwide and worldwide, however; we try to maintain a focus on New England (MA, RI, CT, VT, NH, and ME; but will travel to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Washington DC area as needed.

All travel time exceeding one hundred (100) miles each way is billable on a door-to-door basis.

Services provided outside of a two-day drive of New England will involve additional travel charges for air transportation, equipment shipment, and so on. .

In special cases we will consider coverage with a portable counterintelligence lab anywhere in North America or globally when it is practical to do so.

If you are outside our normal coverage area or we are unable to respond in a timely manner for other reasons, we will recommend another TSCM firm in your area upon request. We are not at all bashful about sending you to one of our qualified competitors should they be more appropriate to your needs or location.

Payment Terms

Terms for all work is strictly by full retainer (of half the anticipated fee) in advance unless otherwise indicated in writing. Cancellation of a scheduled TSCM service will result in a cancellation charge equal to all travel and lodging expenses, plus half of the estimated fee.

Payment is accepted via wie transfer, cash, corporate or government check, certified bank check, business check, cashiers check, money order. Wire transfer is the most private and secure means to provide payment, and we have even more private methods of payment as well that we can discuss with you privately. All financial instruments will be held for full bank clearance. Checks or other any instrument returned or rejected for any reason are subject to a $100 handling charge (or the maximum amount provided by law).

Hardware and Software

In the event that this project involves the purchasing, installation, sale, or procurement of hardware, software, cables, or any other deliverable equipment all parties recognize this kind of equipment is highly specialized and frequently custom built or programmed for a specific customer, transaction or application. With this in mind there will be a 75% cancellation charge on any non-programming portion of an order that is cancelled once production or development of the goods has begun. For any custom installation, or custom programming, including the development of ciphers, algorithms, or source code the cancellation charge shall be 90%. For any transaction where a deposit is paid, but in which the transaction which is not consummated within 90 days of the deposit date for any reason other then actual production time of the goods or post shipping customs clearance the deposit shall be fully forfeited to Granite Island Group as liquidated damages. If the transaction is structured so that the customer has promised to purchase a certain numbers of goods within a given timeframe but has only taken partial delivery, the time frame to take full and final delivery shall not exceed 90 days, and the customer agrees to pay 30% of the value of the unshipped goods as a cancellation fee, and the order shall be considered cancelled.

With regards to source code, and auditing of source code. Quite frankly, we do not provide source code to any customers, not to corporate customers, and not to government clients. Should a customer desire to perform a formal code audit, we will provide a well commented hard copy (not digital) of the source code to the customer and the programmer who wrote it will review it one line at a time with you, but the code will not leave our possession, nor be copied. Of course we are more then willing to transport source code to your location, work with your own programmer to audit and customize the code, and then to perform the final compile to your machine for maximum security.

We do not place any kind of backdoors or deliberate weakness into our programs, and we refuse to permit others to tamper with code on which our name appears. Further, we do not sell finished code, but rather we license the final code to the customer on a month-by-month, or year-by-year basis. The software will have been pre-programmed to go dormant at the end of the license period, but there is no kind of a backdoor.

Due to the highly specialized nature of the goods being sold, no equipment, software, encryption, or other equipment is returnable for any reason, and no refunds or returns for equipment is available. Equipment previously sold to the customer however, may be traded in as part of an upgrade at some future date. Equipment that requires warranty repairs, recalibration, or realignment must be sent to the factory, and an RMA number must be obtained from us in advance.

International Sales and Exports

Payment for all international work, expenses, and materials is strictly by full payment in advance. Also, for all exported goods and "defense services" we rigidly comply with all U.S. export laws, and we will not falsify any export document, nor assist anybody else in doing so. Essentially, what you pay for the equipment will be the value we declare the goods on all export documents. We will only list the nature of the goods as they actually are recognized to be, but what you or others request us to list them as. Certain items will likely require special government approvals for export, but we will let you know if any restrictions or special approvals are required on the items you are seeking. However, all TSCM equipment, all cryptographic, and all signals analysis products require special approval of the U.S. State or Commerce Department for each shipment, and to apply for that approval the actual end user must provide an end-user letter to us after funds are provided for the order. Also, we do not deal with intermediaries for equipment sales, and will only deal with the actual end user of the product in order to streamline equipment sales for clients.

Project Cancellation

Should a project be cancelled by the customer once scheduled, the deposit is completely forfeited (or an amount equal to half the project fee plus expenses, whichever is greatest). In the Boston area, if the project is rescheduled to begin within three business days of the original day there is no penalty, but if the date is changed by more then 72 hours of the original date half of the deposit is forfeited in full, and the difference will be payable at the end of the project as a rescheduling fee. If the project is outside the Boston area the deposit is forfeited on a cancelation or reschedule.

Other Concerns

We do not work on a contingency basis or any variation thereof.

It is our policy that should a government agency, law firm, third party, or anybody else inquire about a customer or a transaction in any way we will make every attempt to alert the customer to this inquiry as quickly as possible.

Should our client have significant concerns in regards to the confidentiality of our mutual relationship we will arrange for payment to be made in such a way so as not in any way lead back to the customer. Also, for certain customers we will arrange for a dead-mans switch whereby we have to contact a third party on a periodic basis and provide a code or other anti-duress signal. This third party will then only contact the customer to alert them of a problem should this code not be turned in by us as scheduled.

All projects will be handled strictly as a technical counterintelligence, engineering, coaching, tutoring, or intelligence analysis, project, and no investigative services or surveillance devices will be provided. Should any investigative services be required the customer agrees to arrange for these via other means.

We also will not sell any products to any customer unless we are convinced that they fully understand what they are purchasing, how to use it, and what it can and can not do. We seek to have happy customers, and with the types of good that we sell, a customer will only be happy long term if they understand the equipment, including the capabilities, and more importantly the weakness or vulnerability of the equipment. Additionally, we do not sell products to any person who is not a legitimate U.S. Citizen.

All parties recognize that these projects requires at least 24 man-hours of measurements and inspections in the area being inspected for a single room of not greater than 250 square feet, and one day for each additional room or additional 250 square feet. If more than this area or space is to be inspected at a rate greater then the listed times then both parties agree and understand that portions of the inspection will be abbreviated or omitted and that the inspection will not as thorough as possible.

Once a project is completed, and all questions about the project has been answered, it is our policy to forget the project was ever even undertaken, and to destroy all the records related to the project. Thus, we will not remember a customer, nor the details of any assignment, nor the results, nor any of our clients private details. We do this for the protection of our customers, and will only deviate foro this policy at the specific request of a client.

If a serious security hazard or vulnerability is found the customers representative will be notified as soon as reasonably possible. If a minor hazard or vulnerability is found the problem will be documented and presented in the written report. Any safety violation or concern will be communicated verbally to the customers contact as quickly as possible, and will be mentioned in the written report if one is to be prepared.

In the event that a obviously hostilely induced eavesdropping device or activity is found both parties agree that the customer will contact appropriate law enforcement agencies as appropriate or their attorney to make report of such findings, and that such report will be made within one hour of such discovery. In the event that it is discovered that classified information is being disclosed via an eavesdropping device, by an equipment malfunction, or by any hostile induction or modification both parties agree to initiate emergency contact to cognizant authorities via the customers contact, but such notification will be performed in such a way so as not to tip off the eavesdropper or spy. All parties agree to work with the appropriate authorities in the event that any criminal activity or hostile penetration or exploitation is encountered. Further the customer agree to pay the customary daily consulting fees and expenses in advance should Granite Island Group be required to interface with the authorities, prepare for legal proceedings, or to testify in court in any matter related to the services being rendered.

Reports

If a customer does not desire that a report be provided (for legal or risk management reasons) then only a verbal report of findings will be provided, but this issue should be decided upon well in advance of services being rendered.

Records Retention

All parties agree to protect the trade secrets, sensitive information, activities, and confidential materials of either party. The vendor (Granite Island Group) normally retains all records of the project for only ten business days after the end of the project, and then after these ten days destroys all records of the assignment. With this in mind the customer understands that any queries regarding the project must be made within this ten day window. For highly confidential or classified project all records are destroyed within 24 hours following the end of the project and receipt of final payment.

As always, we will only act in the absolute best interests of our client, and always with the utmost of professionalism, honor, honesty, and integrity.

For a confidential consultation please E-mail: jmatk@tscm.com

Telephone: (202) 870-8252