in this day and age how come we don't see laptops carry a physical on/off switch for the microphone and camera?
Purism has a laptop with 2 physical switches, and it runs linux too.
FBI director: Cover up your webcam
181–190 of 307 posts
Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Smartphones represent a bigger security risk in that regard. Front facing rear facing, mic all ones personal data, pictures and so on.
Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam
#183From 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…
> but I honestly don't think that they will make a lot of money by selling my naked pictures
I'm thinking you might shell out a few bucks to keep someone from posting pics of you doing something embarrassing while naked.
Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe it is a joke.
Oops. Thanks. I had a fear I was just missing a joke, but I have seen bots used on forums for no immediately obvious/spammy reason and I've also seen people genuinely imagine strange motives for relatively explicable things.
This is probably one of the reasons jokes are very much discouraged on HN. They pollute the conversation and add confusion. I too didn't notice that it was meant to be a joke.
Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Smartphones represent a bigger security risk in that regard. Front facing rear facing, mic all ones personal data, pictures and so on.
Hardly. You put your phone on the desk and it's going to show the ceiling. In contrast to this, people do all kinds of weird things in front of laptops. I've even heard once of someone who allegedly masturbated (!) in front of a laptop. Of course, that must have been an extreme outlier ...
Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam
#186Earlier 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.
It should tell you. That's the whole point.
Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam
#187Earlier 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.
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 y…
I really don't understand this reasoning at all.
If you just block the camera you won't know that your computer is being hacked. The piece of tape isn't going to stop the hacker from doing much. Knowing my computer is hacked is far more important than stopping the attackers from seeing me.
If you have a false positive that is also very concerning and should be dealt with. At the very least I can put a piece of tape over the camera after the light turns on, if I believe it's a false positive.
Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam
#188Didn't all Sun webcams used to have little irises that you could close on them?
It seems like a sensible precaution: makes it less likely I'll accidentally log into a company conference call in my dressing gown with my camera enabled.
Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam
#189Earlier 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.
Then a camera light that tells you when the camera is on, and a hardware switch that prevents image data from going to the computer.
Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the LED were simply wired in series somehow with the mic power supply I imagine it would be easier to tell. The problem with the Mac LED indicator was that it was controlled by a microcontroller that was ultimately accessible via user land. It's harder to surreptitiously bypass a simple electrical circuit.
Sorry, but how do you tell the difference? I agree that the Mac LED indicator was poorly designed, but...
As a user, you can't. The hardware manufacturer has to tell you.