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FBI director: Cover up your webcam

thehill.com

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Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#211

Post by [deleted] »

iceman99 wrote: post #172
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #73

Earlier 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…

[deleted]

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#213

Post by tychuz »

deftnerd wrote: post #125
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…

It's gotten to the point where I only feel totally comfortable using machines I've hardened myself. My hardened laptop is an older Thinkpad laptop with LibreBoot to replace the BIOS, microphone and speakers and camera disconnected internally, removed the wireless cards, encrypted the partitions, and use Whonix as the OS. I've password protected the BIOS and it's set to boot only from the hard drive and I've also epox…

I'd rather use my closed source safe operating system like Windows instead of having open source stuff with hearthbleed like stuff open for every hacker, thanks.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#214

Post by r_smart »

iceman99 wrote: post #172
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #73

Earlier 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…

Not trying to be flippant, but just pull the USB cable out. Just takes a second, even if it's plugged into the back of your computer (I do it all the time with my keyboard if I'm working on my laptop that day).

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#215

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

r_smart wrote: post #214
iceman99 wrote: post #172

Earlier 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…

Not trying to be flippant, but just pull the USB cable out. Just takes a second, even if it's plugged into the back of your computer (I do it all the time with my keyboard if I'm working on my laptop that day).

That doesn't work with cameras integrated in laptops.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#216

Post by Houshalter »

onion2k wrote: post #192
Houshalter wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

At the very least I can put a piece of tape over the camera after the light turns on At which point it's already too late - the hacker has had access to your camera for some period of time, until you notice the light. If you're interested in stopping people seeing you then you've failed. Putting a hardware block on the camera (eg tape) before you're hacked means that the hacker won't ever get access to your camera to…

>At which point it's already too late - the hacker has had access to your camera for some period of time, until you notice the light.

Yeah for like 10 seconds. Who cares? The problem with webcams is they can spy on you for days and weeks on end, and record your sensitive conversations.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#217

Post by jimhefferon »

zyngaro wrote: post #182
iceman99 wrote: post #172

Earlier 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.

Yes. They should have a switch.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#218

Post by drbawb »

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.

I don't use a laptop if I can avoid it. My personal workstation is right across from my bed, and it's powered 24/7 since it's acting as a file-server and game-server.

Given how everything is angled, I suppose a webcam infiltrator would have a perfect view of me sleeping.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#219

Post by jjnoakes »

Houshalter wrote: post #186
dndln wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If I'm hacked and the attacker doesn't touch my camera, then it can't tell me.

That's the whole point.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#220

Post by r_smart »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #215
r_smart wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not trying to be flippant, but just pull the USB cable out. Just takes a second, even if it's plugged into the back of your computer (I do it all the time with my keyboard if I'm working on my laptop that day).

That doesn't work with cameras integrated in laptops.

That's...a really good point. Talk about a massive blind spot on my part :)
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