Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FBI director: Cover up your webcam

thehill.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 307 posts

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#81

Post by sporkologist »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #26
ipsin wrote: post #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.

If it was on my radar I would much rather have an LED for microphone active (laptop and phone) than webcam - precisely because I can put a sticker on webcam. Better still a hardware switch.

Maybe a toggle for enabling/disabling device driver for mic?

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#83

Post by jasoncchild »

Larrikin wrote: post #47
6t6t6t6 wrote: 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…

I know that what the webcam captures is probably the least important thing a hacker can get but I do it because it is visible. Protecting your privacy should NOT be weird and a sticker over your webcam is a very visible way of showing that to the public. When people ask why I do it, its a good opportunity to educate them on the capabilities of the US government, other nation-state actors, and hackers in general. If t…

Why does everyone strip down in front of thier computers?

When I'm done using my laptop I close it.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#84

Post by orthogon »

deathanatos wrote: post #77
orthogon wrote: post #75

What about the part where we stop buying products with integrated cameras? What about the part where we stop buying devices that we have seeemingly no hope of control over? What about that? Is boycott a word too strong? Gee, you're right. We should all just give up, and accept that what we're sold, is that which we must buy.

I think you're being a bit quick to judge people here… Having an integrated camera is obviously a lot easier to deal with, logistically, than lugging along an external USB camera. I think a lot of the people here would love to have hardware-level kill switches for their video camera. And mic. And WiFi. (I would; I used to own a Thinkpad with a hardware kill switch for WiFi. It was useful, even aside from the privacy…

I think you're neglecting a key detail: alternatives are hardly even on the shelves, and NO ONE QUESTIONS IT.

  > Oh, well, that's just 
    supply and demand, of 
    course!

  > Everyone just WANTS an 
    always on internet connection!

  > Why would anyone ever remove
    the battery from their 
    cell phone???

  > It's more cost effective
    to build the device
    like that. Common sense!

  > Everyone wants a unique 
    identifier, GPS and 911
    service. It's safer!
Yup, no one would ever want things any other way. It's silly to question why the invisible hand of the market works as it does.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#85

Post by csydas »

conradev wrote: post #60

I use a MacBook Pro as my daily driver, but I recently purchased a Lenovo ThinkPad to play around with. Sometimes I forget how awesome it is to have a repairable and modular computer. I didn't want the webcam or microphone in the ThinkPad… so I took 30 minutes and removed it. Easy as that.

Well,to be fair you could just open the MacBook Pro and unplug the ribbon for the webcam. iFixit will have instructions. Removing it entirely granted is another matter, involving opening the screen, but you'd have to do the same on any modern laptop with an integrated camera wouldn't you?

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#86

Post by willvarfar »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #48
bradbeattie wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/VisualMic/

Interesting technique. This requires 60fps 1280x720 video. People would surely notice the slowdown. I wonder if it's possible to improve on this?

The saying is "attacks only get better". Its likely that more can be done with less pixels but more software.

But hardware can also get better. Surely the next-gen of laptops have depth-sensing cameras too? Its becoming an integral part of game console motion detection, and normal smartphones will have them too e.g. hype I found by googling: https://3dprint.com/117809/depth-sensing-phone-cameras/

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#87

Post by abysmallyideal »

dingo_bat wrote: post #3

I have never covered my Webcam because I trust the light to come on if the camera turns on. Is it possible to bypass that led?

Yes, LEDs are just connected by gpio. It is cheaper than doing something like parallel or serial led connections (i.e. on the power wire) since the chips come with a few extra gpio balls.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#88

Post by abysmallyideal »

6t6t6t6 wrote: 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…

When the FBI interrogate, they have people whose expertise is to use your entire body language including facial expressions, etc... to gather information.

Giving an attacker the ability to monitor your body language while they have full control of your computer is extremely dangerous as they have established a closed loop to interact with you without your consent or knowledge.

As the FBI also excell in this kind of subversive intelligence gathering, it figures they would be wary of being on the other end of it. An example is if a chinese, Russian, corporate spy had them on the other end without their knowledge.

Edit: Another topic is the issue of criminals who use extortion. This is far more common than you likely realize or aware of. Where we are the criminals and intelligence saboteurs/spies are alot more sophisticated, and use computer hacks as part of their planning to extort and blackmail their targets.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#89

Post by School-Cotton »

jasoncchild wrote: post #83
Larrikin wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that what the webcam captures is probably the least important thing a hacker can get but I do it because it is visible. Protecting your privacy should NOT be weird and a sticker over your webcam is a very visible way of showing that to the public. When people ask why I do it, its a good opportunity to educate them on the capabilities of the US government, other nation-state actors, and hackers in general. If t…

Why does everyone strip down in front of thier computers? When I'm done using my laptop I close it.

...do I have to spell it out for you?

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#90

Post by School-Cotton »

1_2__3 wrote: post #55
krastanov wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of electronics it is fairly trivial and it can be inspected by eye (or microscope) if the manufacturer decides to not encapsulate everything on a chip (which presumably would be the point of such a feature). Just have the only positive voltage rail going to the camera be the same one that is directly powering the LED. The firmware will be turning this rail on and off, hence turning the camera and the LED on…

Idle though on possible attack vectors: Convince the firmware to use a lower voltage, one that doesn't hit the breakover voltage on the LED but still powers the camera. Strobe the line, get snapshots without the LED doing more than very faintly glowing.

LED activation voltage is less than what cameras typically require.
Post reply on HN