As cardinals gather in Vatican City to choose the successor to Pope John Paul II, the temptation to eavesdrop on their deliberations could prove too much for some.
The name of the papal successor would provide explosive news headlines and the private discussions between different factions within the papal conclave could be politically sensitive.
So media and government intelligence agencies might both have reason to try to listen in when 115 cardinals gather at the Sistine Chapel on 18 April to decide upon a new leader for the Roman Catholic Church.
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Giuseppe Mazzullo, a private detective and former Rome policeman whose unit worked closely with the Vatican, said the Church will go to considerable lengths to keep the discussions private. 鈥淭he security is very strict,鈥� he told Associated Press. 鈥淔or people to steal information, it鈥檚 very, very difficult, if not impossible.鈥�
But this is the first papal conclave since 1978 and surveillance technology has improved in its sophistication since then, prompting experts to note that there are many ways in which the conclave could be spied upon. They say counter-surveillance measures will be needed to stop any leaks.
Seemingly innocuous
The most obvious technological approach is to plant a radio transmitter in the rooms used for the deliberations. Devices just a few millimetres in size are commercially available and can easily be disguised as seemingly innocuous items such as pens, books or wall plugs, or can be secured underneath a table, for example.
But Craig Benn, an engineer at Lorraine Electronic Surveillance in London, UK, notes that bugging equipment may have to be substantially bigger in order to have enough power and transmission range to be practical.
He adds that radio eavesdropping can be detected with relative ease by a professional 鈥渟weep-team鈥�, which would use a device able to locate the source of radio transmissions within a room.
A more effective means of surveillance could be to plant a bug that operates via a cellphone network, Benn suggests. Such devices are harder to detect because they are masked by ordinary cellphone traffic. And they can be accessed from anywhere in the world, using a normal telephone connection. This method can still be foiled, however, using a cellphone-jamming device and other equipment to pinpoint the source of the local cellphone signal.
Bouncing beams
Another approach, and one that should be even more difficult to detect, is a long range laser microphone. By bouncing a laser beam off a window pane it is possible to record conversations on the other side, by means of vibrations felt by the glass. This technique can even work from hundreds of metres away.
Benn, however, notes that the approach can be notoriously difficult to make work. 鈥淚f you have double-glazing or curtains, or if it鈥檚 raining, then you have problems,鈥� he says. 鈥淧ersonally, I would try to get a cellphone device in there.鈥�
Even with the latest technology, a major portion of surveillance remains decidedly low-tech, says Steven Aftergood, an intelligence expert at the Federation of American 快猫短视频s, based in Washington DC.
鈥淭he best methods of espionage are the traditional ones 鈥� bribery and coercion,鈥� he told 快猫短视频. 鈥淭he technology has advanced but many of the techniques are thousands of years old.鈥�
But Aftergood questions whether the incentive to eavesdrop on the discussions will be great enough. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a secret that鈥檚 meant to be kept for very long,鈥� he points out. 鈥淚 think it鈥檒l be news reporters, rather than professional spies, who鈥檙e going to be chasing it.鈥�
