Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 218 posts

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#71

Post by JohnTHaller »

nyolfen wrote: post #50
JohnTHaller wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like phones, most laptop webcams have no "on" light. You have to trust that the software you have on your device isn't using the microphone and camera without your permission.

you and i have very different experience with webcams. i have yet to see a webcam without an indicator led in my life.

My just retired Acer laptop has no such light. My HP Windows tablet I use with a bluetooth keyboard doesn't either.

I checked and my new(ish) XPS 13 does have a tiny light when you use it as does my ASUS 2-in-1.

So I'm at 50-50 in my collection. I asked my girlfriend and she doesn't recall there being a light on her Toshiba laptop and she does Skype with it semi-regularly.

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#72

Post by kobayashi »

dsl wrote: post #65
jd3 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hayden understands technology like a politician understands rhetoric. He's a snake.

I recently had the chance to meet Gen. Hayden. He is quite competent and could hold his own in a technical discussion at a high level. He understood the minutiae of the Clinton email scandal and shared some insights that made me reconsider my view on the issue.

At the Hoover Book Soiree? I heard great things about it.

I'd love it if you might share what he mentioned about the email scandal, as it's one of the few current political events that I haven't followed in great detail.

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#73

Post by kobayashi »

drvdevd wrote: post #33
kobayashi wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's about risk/threat minimization

It seems like a losing battle though. Small embedded cameras are becoming too widespread and you can't put tape on all of them. I think looking forward it's not unreasonable to rely on software controlled switches to minimize this risk, knowing that they will fail or be exploited sometimes anyway.

Still, I'd say my comment stands. It's about threat minimization. Reduce the attack surface by covering the cam.

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#74

Post by rdl »

brbsix wrote: post #56
rdl wrote: post #29

I care about audio so much more than video, and text/keys/etc captured from the machine even more. As long as my screen and keyboard are out of the frame of the camera, I don't really care about it getting RATed. At worst, you'll see me naked, or making angry/etc. faces at someone on irc or email. While embarrassing it would be less bad than most of what you could accomplish by stealing actual information. OTOH, carr…

That custom run you've described sounds like exactly the sort of "interesting" order I'd like to intercept and backdoor (as part of NSA's TAO or some other yet unnamed organization). Personally I'd prefer to buy off-the-shelf hardware and just snip the mic and camera.

Yes, but there are solutions to this (cut-and-choose, published specs, etc.)

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#75

Post by mkl »

50CNT wrote: post #57
rdl wrote: post #29

I care about audio so much more than video, and text/keys/etc captured from the machine even more. As long as my screen and keyboard are out of the frame of the camera, I don't really care about it getting RATed. At worst, you'll see me naked, or making angry/etc. faces at someone on irc or email. While embarrassing it would be less bad than most of what you could accomplish by stealing actual information. OTOH, carr…

Some laptops already have physical switches for wireless connectivity, couldn't you just add one of those that cuts power to the onboard microphone and camera?

Some Lenovo ThinkCentre all-in-one PCs have a physical sliding webcam cover, and you can see at a glance what position it's in. Microphones are harder to handle in such a low tech way, though.

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#76

Post by sudojudo »

50CNT wrote: post #57
rdl wrote: post #29

I care about audio so much more than video, and text/keys/etc captured from the machine even more. As long as my screen and keyboard are out of the frame of the camera, I don't really care about it getting RATed. At worst, you'll see me naked, or making angry/etc. faces at someone on irc or email. While embarrassing it would be less bad than most of what you could accomplish by stealing actual information. OTOH, carr…

Some laptops already have physical switches for wireless connectivity, couldn't you just add one of those that cuts power to the onboard microphone and camera?

That is already out there too, with Purism Librem laptops.

The commenter you're replying to would be better off giving his money to a company that puts privacy (and FOSS) above all else, instead of trying to bribe a lost cause (let's not forget about the 3 times Lenovo has been caught with nasty factory-installed malware on their consumer laptops).

Here's the Librem laptop homepage: https://puri.sm/products/

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#77

Post by analognoise »

sudojudo wrote: post #76
50CNT wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some laptops already have physical switches for wireless connectivity, couldn't you just add one of those that cuts power to the onboard microphone and camera?

That is already out there too, with Purism Librem laptops. The commenter you're replying to would be better off giving his money to a company that puts privacy (and FOSS) above all else, instead of trying to bribe a lost cause (let's not forget about the 3 times Lenovo has been caught with nasty factory-installed malware on their consumer laptops). Here's the Librem laptop homepage: https://puri.sm/products/

Purism is a joke - they rely on binary blobs like everybody else. It's an overpriced laptop with a fancy marketing campaign - might as well buy a Lenovo.

Re: The FBI Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam

#78

Post by Kliment »

mkl wrote: post #75
50CNT wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some laptops already have physical switches for wireless connectivity, couldn't you just add one of those that cuts power to the onboard microphone and camera?

Some Lenovo ThinkCentre all-in-one PCs have a physical sliding webcam cover, and you can see at a glance what position it's in. Microphones are harder to handle in such a low tech way, though.

Shorting the two wires of the mic together with a low-value resistor will do what you want, or you can have a physical disconnect switch. It's very easy to modify a mic in this manner if desired. You can even have the switch built into the sliding webcam cover. On digital mics it's a bit more complex to mute without disabling, but the brute force solution is to disconnect their power line in the same manner. Then again, you now have to watch out for things like accelerometers in the board or hard disk which can reconstruct keypresses or act as a very low quality microphone.
Post reply on HN