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FBI director: Cover up your webcam

thehill.com

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Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#171

Post by throw2016 »

The hacker news readership is focussed on startups and technology. It's a career, a business and in some cases an interest in technology.

So privacy as a social good may not be the primary perspective and it often devolves into how this affects readers personally rather than the society they live in or side tracks into technology nuances.

Technology is enabling new negative possibilities but it does not follow that technologists can make a difference. There is no ethical code of conduct. Like everyone else they are another cog in the wheel and software engineers may not have an interest or priority on privacy, social and political issues.

There are a large number of folks working in the nsa, gchq, google, facebook, palantir, hardware vendors and elsewhere actively enabling this.

Like technology itself politics, liberty, privacy and the evolution of modern system from the time of feudalism requires interest and priority. From this perspective the need to tape up your webcam may have completely different ramnifications.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#172

Post by iceman99 »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #73
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…

You're displaying a common trope I see sometimes with security: > "because this particular thing does affect me personally, it doesn't matter. And because it doesn't matter to me it doesn't matter at all" Blackmailing people with pictures taken from webcams is not theoretical. It happens[0] and it's good advice to tape up your cam. It may not affect you personally, but it may affect your wife, daughter, or sister in…

I know someone whose camera and microphone were taken over. A window showed on her computer where the person watching her chatted with her and told her things that he only knew because he was watching her. It scared her to death and made her cry.

Beyond blackmail, it is probably close to the psychological equivalent of a stranger just suddenly appearing in your home watching you.

I think that every electronic camera and mic device should have a hard switch/button that physically disables both the camera and mic. Having to use tape or a cover does not keep you from being spied on; it only eliminates the visual spying. The attacker can still listen.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#173

Post by aargh_aargh »

lostlogin wrote: post #120
mschuetz wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "This particular thing doesn't matter because I don't need it. And because I don't need it, nobody needs it at all" This is all that I hate about stackoverflow.

You don't know SO rage until you get a case of a small, inconsequential problem which is of vital importance to you. After heaps of searching someone else has posted the same issue on SO. Then reposted a while later with "Don't worry, fixed".

As always, releavant: https://xkcd.com/979/

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#174

Post by tingol »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #111

"The head of the FBI on Wednesday defended putting a piece of tape over his personal laptop's webcam, claiming the security step was a common sense one that most should take." One needs to ask why is the head of the FBI telling you this? Cui bono? This is a red herring. The FBI has no interest in filming you through your webcam. They want to listen to your microphone, watch your screen, get the keys you've typed, see…

The FBI isn't telling you this so you could protect yourself from the government. They are telling you this because they know how easy it is for someone else to take control of the camera and make your life hard. So it is a common sense step for you to take if you're concerbed about security.

You took a pretty huge jump from that to the FBI listening to your mic.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#175

Post by dndln »

Houshalter wrote: post #162
onion2k wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion hardware should be designed so that the camera LED lamp should always be lit if the camera is used. That would only inform the user that the camera is on, and that isn't good enough. If the user is paying active attention to the computer then they can take action, but if they're not then they can't - noticing an LED has switched on when you're busy doing something else in the same room is quite unlikely…

The hardware switch won't tell you that your computer has been hacked. The camera light will. And a lens cover won't protect your microphone or your personal data.

If you are hacked, the camera light won't tell you. The camera light also won't protect your microphone or your personal data.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#176

Post by drvdevd »

pdkl95 wrote: post #56
white-flame wrote: post #53

I said it then, and I say it now: - Encryption is our webcam tape. That tape cannot be thwarted by any remote attacker, legally warranted or not. It's perfect, unbreakable security from webcam visuals being exfiltrated, exactly the security features that Comey says we shouldn't be allowed to have for our data.

"What if everyone believed that law-abiding citizens should use postcards for their mail? If a nonconformist tried to assert his privacy by using an envelope for his mail, it would draw suspicion. Perhaps the authorities would open his mail to see what he's hiding. Fortunately, we don't live in that kind of world, because everyone protects most of their mail with envelopes. So no one draws suspicion by asserting thei…

A brilliant point and a salient quote. Why must we continue to live, collectively, with our heads in the sand?

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#177

Post by syshum »

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 prefer not to have to bother removing stickers every time I want to do a Skype call.

I solve that by never talking to anyone ;)

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#178

Post by dndln »

benevol wrote: post #107

Every electronic communication device (laptop, mobile, tablet, etc) should have 1 hardware switch per sensor (camera, mic, motion/acceleration, etc) which disables the sensor. Why manufacturers still haven't introduced this is beyond me.

Here's a linux-running laptop that has 2 hardware switches:

https://puri.sm/librem-13

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#179

Post by onion2k »

Houshalter wrote: post #162
onion2k wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion hardware should be designed so that the camera LED lamp should always be lit if the camera is used. That would only inform the user that the camera is on, and that isn't good enough. If the user is paying active attention to the computer then they can take action, but if they're not then they can't - noticing an LED has switched on when you're busy doing something else in the same room is quite unlikely…

The hardware switch won't tell you that your computer has been hacked. The camera light will. And a lens cover won't protect your microphone or your personal data.

The issue is the camera being used to violate your privacy. A hardware switch that lets you physically disable the camera, or a a lens cover that stops it seeing anything, stops the possibility of that happening completely. You'd obviously need a second system in order to stop an attacker using your microphone.

All a light does is inform you that the camera is active. That is not a defence. It doesn't tell you that you've been hacked because an attacker might not access the camera (a mic and data are still accessible), and the camera light might activate if you haven't been hacked (eg any piece of software that you're using might result in the camera activating regardless of whether you want it to or not) which would lead to many false positives and as a consequence people would ignore the light.

A light is only information, and any amount of information won't stop an attack. Information is only available after you've been attacked, so you haven't stopped or mitigated the problem. A hardware solution that stops people accessing the camera mitigates the result of an attack before it happens. That's why it's much better. You just have to remember that blocking the camera only stops attacks that use the camera. You still need to be diligent about other attack surfaces.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#180

Post by yoz-y »

dndln wrote: post #175
Houshalter wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hardware switch won't tell you that your computer has been hacked. The camera light will. And a lens cover won't protect your microphone or your personal data.

If you are hacked, the camera light won't tell you. The camera light also won't protect your microphone or your personal data.

But the light won't tell you because of a flawed design. It should be trivial to design a webcam LED which can not be turned off while the camera is being used.
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