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FBI director: Cover up your webcam

thehill.com

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Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#291

Post by mattnewton »

_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…

I do think the FBI has a track record of infringing privacy and bending the law, but the FBI isn't always the boogeyman. Here they are probably actually trying to do their job, which includes protecting citizens from blackmailers and other baddies.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#292

Post by cleaver »

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…

Maybe it's just me, but I didn't take away that the commenter felt it is unimportant and he humourously explained why. He also explained that the other things were of greater concern.

More importantly, there's the fact that the level of access required to take over a webcam implies the ability to do all sorts of other things.

What I took away was that if his system was compromised, an open webcam wouldn't likely be the chosen vector for ruining his life.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#293

Post by Navarr »

onion2k wrote: post #155
janvidar wrote: post #112

Isn't this really just a sign of flawed hardware design? In my opinion hardware should be designed so that the camera LED lamp should always be lit if the camera is used. If there is a malfunction with the LED, then the camera should also not work. Also there should be a hardware LED for when the microphone is being used which should work in the same fashion for laptops with built-in microphones. In the webcam driver…

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…

Take it a step further - an auto-off hardware switch.

When you go to Skype you have to flip it before audio/video works - and then once the webcam is no longer "in use" it flips the hardware switch so that it can't be triggered (as the user is not going to want to re-trigger it, nor is likely to remember to do so)

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#294

Post by djsumdog »

fencepost wrote: post #259
djsumdog wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That webcam might have a microphone. Your laptop has one too. Neither have a little LED to tell if they're on (the one on most cameras isn't hard wired to the sensor. You can sometimes turn it off in the drivers). There's a microphone in your phone, in your tablet, your PS4 controller, your land line (why do you still have one of those?!), that USB gaming headset you left plugged in, your fitbit, your overpriced voic…

Of interesting note: ThinkPads have (had?) independent mute, volume and microphone buttons with LEDs to indicate volume or microphone muting. It's clearly at least partially software or driver driven, because with Windows 10 microphone muting is no longer functional. The warm and fuzzy feeling that discovery gave me is why my daily driver is still on Win7 since I almost always have both audio directions muted.

MSI laptops too. They have an Fn+Fkey, but when you use it, it disconnects the camera from the USB bus. It disappears from your device listings in lsusb/linux, or device manager on windows.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#295

Post by maxerickson »

awesomerobot wrote: post #208

Also remove your microphone and don't use a keyboard? If I were hacking you I'd _much_ rather log your keystrokes or hear what you're saying. The number of scenarios where having a visual would be useful would be incredibly low by comparison. Putting a sticker over your webcam is like putting a lock on a screen door.

Most screen doors I can think of do have locks.

Even quite home made ones often end up with a hook that kids can't reach.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#296

Post by [deleted] »

mafribe wrote: post #266
icantdrive55 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just blackmail that I worry about. A hypothetical, ruthless hacker manages to install malware on a person's computer. Hell they could target certain zip codes. All the information is on the Internet. Hell, they could get a picture of your home. (By the way, Google will blure out you home, if you ask. It tends to reappear, although they claim its permanent. If your house has been sold recently, a thief/crimin…

This is all true, but wouldn't somebody who has the technical skills to pull this all of, be able to pull in a legal income far in excess of what burglary is likely to yield?

[deleted]

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#297

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

majewsky wrote: post #209
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a term for this. Maybe something like 'security theatre'.

"Security theater" is an established term, but usually refers to useless security measures implemented by organizations (companies or governments) to soothe the public (their employees/citizens/guests), rather than to actions of individuals onto themselves.

Right. Sorry, it was sort of a joke. I've been told I'm not very good at them.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#298

Post by Shorel »

bradbeattie wrote: post #42
stephentmcm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

The range of the human voice goes from 85hz to 255 Hz, and that means a webcam should record at about 500hz to be able to capture enough information to reconstruct voice with good quality.

Because webcams record at 60hz (max), they can only capture enough data to reconstruct sound at 30hz, way below the human voice range.

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#299

Post by cwkoss »

kriro wrote: post #194
oAlbe wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> its a good opportunity to educate them Am I the only one to receive disarming responses when trying to educate anybody over this matter? The vast majority of people (and when I say "vast majority" I mean everybody but two or three people tops, so far) I tried to explain things to don't care. All they have to say are things like "Where is your tinfoil hat?", "This is conspiracy theory", "If they want to spy us there…

"I have nothing to fear because I have nothing to hide." The best comeback to this is usually asking if they have drapes/shades for their windows at home. I think I read that in a CCC guide to talking about privacy/security somewhere. At least that has lead to somewhat interesting discussions and the occasional moment of "you might have a point".

I like, "Mind if I read your text messages? Hand me your phone"

Re: FBI director: Cover up your webcam

#300

Post by Houshalter »

tantalor wrote: post #274
Houshalter wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes of course. It should be connected to both. You can't put a piece of tape over a microphone.

But the microphone is always on if you enable voice activation, e.g., "Okay Google", "Hey Siri", "Hey Cortana". That recognition is handled in software, so no "hacker proof" hardware indicator can distinguish between the use cases. "Hey Siri" works on desktop devices: https://9to5mac.com/2016/07/15/how-to-enable-hands-free-hey-... "Okay Google" was removed from desktop: http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/16/9553051/ok-g…

Yes, and I have my own issues with unprompted voice activation for that exact reason.

I think that having the mic light always on when you enable voice activation, would go a long way to showing consumers the risks of it. It makes it visually obvious that you are being recorded.

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