> Mac notebooks have a camera indicator light to let you know when the camera is on.
That's great, but we'll need the electronic schematics and the OS source code to trust that.
Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
451–460 of 990 posts
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#452Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be pretty impressive for someone to get the camera to work through a physical cover.
It would be mildly impressive if a manufacturer made a fake cover with a switch to detect when it's "closed" and make the main camera stream filtered to look like the cover is real, while having a 2nd back-door unfiltered stream. Of course this could be detected by someone who took the unit apart.
On Thinkpads, the cover has a prominent red dot painted on it, that ends up in the location where camera lens would normally be. And, of course, you can visibly see the edge of the cover move as you slide it. So I don't know how you'd fake that.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#453Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#454> "Designed to protect your privacy, Mac notebooks have a camera indicator light to let you know when the camera is on. ... Published Date: July 02, 2020" Perhaps Apple missed these? 2013: iSeeYou: Disabling the MacBook Webcam Indicator LED https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/36569 2016: Your Mac’s Camera Can Be Hacked https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/your-macs-camera-ca... 2016: Former NSA emp…
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Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#455Earlier quoted context omitted.
it was hacked in the past - that's the point of the above comment No guarantee it can't be hacked again.
There is a guarantee because there’s no way to bypass the wiring to the light to power the camera.
Let me genuinely ask: why do you believe this?
Because Apple said so? I simply don't have this level of trust.
Because someone disassembled their MacBook and reverse engineered things? And that person is trustworthy and competent? That is better, but even if it was true for the MacBook they reverse engineered, suppliers make tweaks to parts all the time. Can I be sure that my MacBook still has the exact same camera?
Because you opened up your MacBook to confirm? Maybe then you can trust it.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#456Earlier quoted context omitted.
Zuckerberg is probably compromised by multiple nation states in some way at any time. It’s a very different threat than most people have.
Most people? Sure. Most people on hacker news? Unclear. I think a really large portion of users here would be extremely good attack targets. Developers with privileged access to source code and operations staff with privileged access to systems make up a significant portion of the users here. Besides: Most people don't accidentally want to show up on a video conference while undressed when they accidentally hit the w…
100%. The bank I used to work at had a part of the employee handbook dedicated to what happens if you're kidnapped. We're just being naive and casual as we are wont to do. Bro don't worry have another free granola bar.
And in fact one of the devs was poached by a shady bunch of foreign looking suits who would have fit right in with big brother.
In all fairness you have a split second between the light coming on and the video stream initializing to err hide your shame. What are you doing in front of your computer with no pants on? Naked yoga?
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#457Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are also doctors who are anti-vaccine, financial planners who don't max out 401ks, sysadmins with unpatched home systems, etc. Just because someone could possibly know that the thing they're doing is illogical doesn't mean they act on that knowledge. > There's a reason Zukerberg's laptop has its mic and camera tapped up This is an incredibly weakly phrased argument; there's a reason people are flat-earthers as…
Unlike a led light, a piece of tape prevents unauthorized webcam access.
Which, as I said, us hardware prevention. It stops someone from recording you, it also stops you from knowing someone tried to record you (i.e. hardware detection).
The hacking consequences I care about are having my bank accounts drained, not having my picture taken.
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#458Earlier quoted context omitted.
Blackmail potential. It's not the company meetings that criminals want to hack laptop cameras for.
You think state or even corporate espionage is less lucrative than someone blackmailing you because you were satisfying yourself?
Corporate espionage is potentially more lucrative yes but the opportunities are much less. There are millions of MacBooks out there with significantly more people jacking off in front of them than discussing lucrative corporate secrets
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#459An indicator light is good and well but, you kinda have to be present to monitor it in order to stop it. Someone can record all the video they want if you’re not around to notice.
And that still leaves the possibility for it to snap a photo of you present at the computer before you can react to stop it.
So far it has stopped me once or twice from picking my nose on camera. So not totally useless. /s
Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera
#460Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a laptop with a physical switch for WiFi/Bluetooth in 2006 or so (with a matching orange/blue light that would turn up when you toggled it). The problem was that this was actually all done by a software driver - when I booted into Linux with the laptop I was surprised to find that the bluetooth/wifi modules were on regardless of the switch's position. At the end of the day, unless you have a really nice microsc…
It would be pretty impressive for someone to get the camera to work through a physical cover.
Just pick a material that's opaque only in visible spectrum.