You may have heard the advice from security professionals to always cover your camera lens when not in use. Is it really a good idea to put a cover over the webcam?
If you find yourself in a coffee shop, you may see computer users using a variety of objects to cover their laptop or tablet webcams. Sometimes it's a post-it, or a sticky tape, or any other imaginative material.
So far there is no laptop or tablet that has a factory cover on the camera. So were you getting paranoid about putting all kinds of stuff on the camera? Think the idea that someone can and wants to look through this particular webcam sounds a bit narcissistic and extreme?
While it's absurd for users to put film over their cameras, it's doubly absurd for them to be completely unconcerned while at the same time surfing weird places like the Dark Web, or torrents, for example.
Webcam hacking is not a myth
Almost everything can be hacked and this is the title of a crime book. Over the years, there have been a number of stories about cameras being hacked by those looking to spy on unsuspecting people, and often people the perpetrators know.
The 2009 a student discovered that his school-provided laptop was secretly photographing him. There are also many stories with women who saw their cameras hacked and with the situation often escalating to extortion.
At the federal level, secret documents showed that the American NSA had access to web cameras, and so did the British surveillance agency GCHQ has done the same. And of course all the spying takes place without turning on the webcam indicator light that it has been activated.
Even without the countless horror stories, the idea of a webcam on your laptop is a little weird to begin with. There is essentially a camera permanently pointed at your face. Not on your keyboard, not on the ceiling, but on your face. And you bought it.
Although you may think that no one cares about you, that you have nothing to hide, but when you see a camera on the street you probably try to avoid it. Or when you see the table next to you in the cafeteria taking a video of you in the shot, you probably duck your head so you can't be seen.
And why do you act like that on a foreign camera? Because you never know what might happen. Likewise with your camera. In the hands of the hacker is now a foreign camera.
Consider that even Mark Zuckerberg, the entrepreneur with the most information about people, puts tape over his camera.
What can you do
Very simple and cheap, to cover your camera with a piece of self-adhesive paper. Something that doesn't leave glue on the lens, like post it. On the other are available on the market and very nice clips for this job.
And if you do the same on your device's microphone it will be even better. If you are an administrator on your machine you can also disable your camera from the settings, although this method is not 100% secure.
On a desktop you can simply disconnect the camera-microphone from the usb port.
And of course a very good antivirus program is essential, especially if you like to go around and download illegal stuff from torrents and other sources.
Finally, we suggest you try to be really boring in front of your camera. Do not operate your machine naked or do unauthorized things in front of it. Do you know…
Don't be afraid if you feel like others think it's silly when you've blocked your webcam with a piece of paper. You look foolish to others, but you are safe.