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FBI director: Cover up your webcam

thehill.com

11–20 of 307 posts

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#12
If you're so concerned about having your webcam subverted, it seems like the first step would be to insist on a hardware LED that can't be subverted in firmware. If nothing else, it would serve as a canary, indicating that your machine has been thoroughly compromised.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#14
post #6

From all they ways I can be spied, the webcam is the one that concerns me the least. At the end, all they will see is a bearded man staring to the front. May they be able to see me naked? Well, probably, but I honestly don't think that they will make a lot of money by selling my naked pictures... My wife tells me that I still look good, but I suspect that she is being nice to me. What would scare more is that they ma…

In fairness, you can still capture conversations from a webcam if your mark is speaking right in front of it, regardless of whether microphones are on.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#16
post #2

I know this thread will probably get politicized, but I see nothing wrong (or necessarily hypocritical; he's law enforcement, not IC) with his advice here.

The FBI is part of the intelligence community.

[1] https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/eo12333.html#1.7

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#17
post #6

From all they ways I can be spied, the webcam is the one that concerns me the least. At the end, all they will see is a bearded man staring to the front. May they be able to see me naked? Well, probably, but I honestly don't think that they will make a lot of money by selling my naked pictures... My wife tells me that I still look good, but I suspect that she is being nice to me. What would scare more is that they ma…

This, unless you are going to open up every device around you and physically isolate all audio recording equipment, I fail to see how covering your webcam is much more than security theatre?

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#19
post #2

I know this thread will probably get politicized, but I see nothing wrong (or necessarily hypocritical; he's law enforcement, not IC) with his advice here.

It's not a bad thing to do, it's just hypocritical of him to value his own privacy but tell everyone else they need to give up theirs and let the FBI and NSA have access to everything they want to keep private.

Similarly Hilary advocates for banning encryption yet makes her staffers using Signal application to encrypt their correspondence.

Our government is full of hypocrites.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#20
post #14
post #6

From all they ways I can be spied, the webcam is the one that concerns me the least. At the end, all they will see is a bearded man staring to the front. May they be able to see me naked? Well, probably, but I honestly don't think that they will make a lot of money by selling my naked pictures... My wife tells me that I still look good, but I suspect that she is being nice to me. What would scare more is that they ma…

In fairness, you can still capture conversations from a webcam if your mark is speaking right in front of it, regardless of whether microphones are on.

Source? I'd hazard a guess that it's likely only marginally more accurate than lip reading?
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