All the Tech We’ve Used to Intercept Every Kind Of Communication

Spy camerasare believably the most axiomatic gadgets when we let the cat out of the bag about intelligence - gathering techniques . But bug and decode message is just as important as taking pictures . Here ’s a look at all the machine spies have used to pink into voice , mail , phone , radio , morse , electronic content , and other signals .

This letter removal device was used in World War II to take letters from their envelopes without opening the seals.

Photo : CIA

The bombe, developed and designed by Alan Turing, was an electromechanical device used by British cryptologists to decipher German Enigma-encrypted secret messages during World War II.

Photo : NSA

CIA used the “Belly Buster” hand-crank audio drill during the late 1950s and early 1960s, to make holes into masonry for implanting audio devices.

This ivory flaps and deals kit for advanced users were used for the surreptitious opening of letters and packages during the 1960s.

British listening device kit used in World War II for intercepting phone calls and private conversations.

pic : Heritage Auctions

Soldiers assigned to the 3rd Radio Research Unit conduct intercept of Morse code transmissions from both fixed and mobile stations.

Photo : U.S. Army

Telefunken PE-484, was a beautifully crafted body-wearable miniature direction finder from the late Fifties. It could be carried inconspicuously under the operator’s clothing and was intended for tracking down clandestine radio stations. Awesome wrist-watch field strength indicator included!

photograph : Crypto Museum

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Henry Cabot Lodge, shows the Security Council in New York a Soviet listening device.

singular tale here : Lodge said the Soviet authorities managed to plant the bug in the office of U.S. Ambassador Llewellyn Thompson in Moscow . The wooden sculpture of the Great Seal of the United States represent by a group of Russians was empty and arrest a hidden microphone . ( May 26 , 1960 )

Photo : John Rooney / AP

Soyka was a Soviet made wide-range body-wearable intercept receiver that was used to track down clandestine radio stations and to intercept communication between agents.

Gun type listening device from the Sixties.

pic : Dan Grossi / AP

Jitka, a telephone tapping equipment, used by Czechoslovak State Security in the Sixties.

exposure : Shaddack / Wikimedia Commons

Steve Soltesz (8) and his toy listening device called The Big Ear able to pickup conversations 200 feet away (1966, Detroit).

Funny floor here : Steve get down in worry with his neighbor who called the police and said he ’d well put his Ear aside in the Ionic where it was until his birthday . Steves dad , Ernest , refused . Police called the prosecuting attorney office , they called the FBI who call a U. S. District Attorney . Ruling : The equipment is sound under Federal Law .

Photo : AP

The Soviet (now Ukrainian) T-shaped Radio telescope field, the world’s largest low-frequency radio telescope at decametre wavelengths. It was built in the early 1970s near the village of Hrakovo. Beside scientific purposes it was allegedly used for communications intercept as well.

exposure : CPCP – Братерство . Мистецтво , Київ , 1972 .

Receiver 2170, developed in the early 1980s, and heavily used by the East German secret police to intercept domestic and foreign radio signals.

17 January 2025: Soviet security official shows a display of listening devices he said were placed by U.S. agents in the new Soviet embassy complex in Washington.

photograph : Ira Schwarz / AP

Kolibrie was a car-phone intercept receiver developed by the Politie Verbindingsdienst (PVD) (Police Signals Service) in The Netherlands in the early 1990s. It was intended for the interception of criminal conversations on the Dutch NMT-900 cellular network, known as ATF-3. It was gradually phased out when GSM became more popular.

2007: Filipino police investigator shows a wiretapping device and a tape recorder found connected to the telephone line leading to the residence of former President Corazon Aquino.

Sailors on the watch-floor of the Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command monitor, analyze, detect and defensively respond to unauthorized activity within U.S. Navy information systems and computer networks.

Photo : Mass Communications Specialist 1st Class Corey Lewis / U.S. Navy

Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Ryan Allshouse uses the intrusion detection system to monitor unclassified network activity from the automated data processing workspace aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).

Photo : Rick Naystatt / U.S. Navy

Flottendienstboot A 50, an Oste class ELINT (electronic signals intelligence) and reconnaissance ship, of the German Navy.

Photo : B.Wilke / Bundeswehr

Royal Air Force Menwith Hill, a Royal Air Force station near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, the largest electronic monitoring, communications intercept and missile warning station in the world, allegedly an element of the Echelon system.

Photo and top shooter : Christopher Furlong / Getty Images

Special thanks to theCrypto Museum , control out their Brobdingnagian and fantastic collection of spy gadgets !

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This letter removal device was used in World War II to take letters from their envelopes without opening the seals.#

The bombe, developed and designed by Alan Turing, was an electromechanical device used by British cryptologists to decipher German Enigma-encrypted secret messages during World War II.#

CIA used the “Belly Buster” hand-crank audio drill during the late 1950s and early 1960s, to make holes into masonry for implanting audio devices.#

This ivory flaps and deals kit for advanced users were used for the surreptitious opening of letters and packages during the 1960s.#

British listening device kit used in World War II for intercepting phone calls and private conversations.#

Soldiers assigned to the 3rd Radio Research Unit conduct intercept of Morse code transmissions from both fixed and mobile stations.#

Telefunken PE-484, was a beautifully crafted body-wearable miniature direction finder from the late Fifties. It could be carried inconspicuously under the operator’s clothing and was intended for tracking down clandestine radio stations. Awesome wrist-watch field strength indicator included!#

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Henry Cabot Lodge, shows the Security Council in New York a Soviet listening device.#

Soyka was a Soviet made wide-range body-wearable intercept receiver that was used to track down clandestine radio stations and to intercept communication between agents.#

Gun type listening device from the Sixties.#

Jitka, a telephone tapping equipment, used by Czechoslovak State Security in the Sixties.#

Steve Soltesz (8) and his toy listening device called The Big Ear able to pickup conversations 200 feet away (1966, Detroit).#

The Soviet (now Ukrainian) T-shaped Radio telescope field, the world’s largest low-frequency radio telescope at decametre wavelengths. It was built in the early 1970s near the village of Hrakovo. Beside scientific purposes it was allegedly used for communications intercept as well.#

Receiver 2170, developed in the early 1980s, and heavily used by the East German secret police to intercept domestic and foreign radio signals.#

17 January 2025: Soviet security official shows a display of listening devices he said were placed by U.S. agents in the new Soviet embassy complex in Washington.#

2007: Filipino police investigator shows a wiretapping device and a tape recorder found connected to the telephone line leading to the residence of former President Corazon Aquino.#

Sailors on the watch-floor of the Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command monitor, analyze, detect and defensively respond to unauthorized activity within U.S. Navy information systems and computer networks.#

Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Ryan Allshouse uses the intrusion detection system to monitor unclassified network activity from the automated data processing workspace aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).#

Flottendienstboot A 50, an Oste class ELINT (electronic signals intelligence) and reconnaissance ship, of the German Navy.#

Royal Air Force Menwith Hill, a Royal Air Force station near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, the largest electronic monitoring, communications intercept and missile warning station in the world, allegedly an element of the Echelon system.#

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