Revisiting webcam covers
rubenerd.com
Revisiting webcam covers
1–10 of 58 posts
Re: Revisiting webcam covers
#2I’d be way more worried about someone putting a keylogger on my laptop versus them taking control of the webcam.
Re: Revisiting webcam covers
#3I’d be way more worried about someone putting a keylogger on my laptop versus them taking control of the webcam.
Exactly. If someone can see through my webcam, I have more to worry about than them seeing my room.
I get the appeal of webcam covers; they’re a quick and simple alleviation to the idea of a “peeping Tom”, but if someone can see through your camera when you don’t want them to, they probably already have control of other things on the computer. They could install a keylogger and siphon my documents/photos for more blackmail material.
Maybe I’m just dense because it never happened to me (AFAIK), but am I wrong?
Re: Revisiting webcam covers
#4I use a small tab of yellow sticky note. I use it not due to attacks but rather for the many dumb teleconferencing apps I have to use at work.
Some automatically send video, some don’t. I try to configure them not to start video by default but for whatever reason, one of them always does.
Re: Revisiting webcam covers
#5There's something to be said for the more recent thinkpads that have physical sliders built into the laptop.
Re: Revisiting webcam covers
#6I use a camera cover for my work computers since I don't have full control over the devices. It has saved me from default broadcasts in conferencing software several times.
Re: Revisiting webcam covers
#7as the author mentioned, probably the bigger nuisance is not hackers getting access to your camera, but legit apps using it when you expect the least
Re: Revisiting webcam covers
#8I’d be way more worried about someone putting a keylogger on my laptop versus them taking control of the webcam.
Exactly. If someone can see through my webcam, I have more to worry about than them seeing my room. I get the appeal of webcam covers; they’re a quick and simple alleviation to the idea of a “peeping Tom”, but if someone can see through your camera when you don’t want them to, they probably already have control of other things on the computer. They could install a keylogger and siphon my documents/photos for more bla…
Why not defend against both scenarios?
Re: Revisiting webcam covers
#9There's something to be said for the more recent thinkpads that have physical sliders built into the laptop.
Yes, if it’s built in then it’s a lot less awkward. You can close the laptop with it on, etc. The practical problems with doing this are bigger than theoretical ones.
Ultimately Apple should probably build this in given their “privacy” messaging.
But in any case, I think surreptitious microphone access is a bigger problem than this, and there’s no easy solution to it.
Re: Revisiting webcam covers
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. If someone can see through my webcam, I have more to worry about than them seeing my room. I get the appeal of webcam covers; they’re a quick and simple alleviation to the idea of a “peeping Tom”, but if someone can see through your camera when you don’t want them to, they probably already have control of other things on the computer. They could install a keylogger and siphon my documents/photos for more bla…
Why not defend against both scenarios?
I’m not saying we shouldn’t. I actually think manufacturers should go a step further and add physical kill switches to webcams. That would allow cutting off the audio as well.
I’m just saying that a sticker seems to be a bandaid on a possibly bigger issue.