Protection from web cameras

Everyone with adequate equipment can watch you whilst you are in front of your laptops.
You should cover the camera with double black strip.

Never dig your nose, never jer.k.-off, never fart, never tsurf naked with web camera uncovered.

Never make faces or dangerous remarks.

I know, the bunch of RHP members will show now arguing that:::
"it is hard to imagine anyone watching me blissfully unimportant digging my nose in the privacy if my 4 walls...""

But that's not tha point, point is in privacy.

And, it is easy to imagine fat virgin "analysts in NSA, CIA or SSS offices, watching you doing stuff thinking no one's watching you. It may inspire them to suggest some ugly de
cisions to higher agents, and...

The chain can lead to the head of NSA and CIA.
And then what?

Just put a sticker on the camera and voilà. That's what I do.

Originally posted by vandervelde
Everyone with adequate equipment can watch you whilst you are in front of your laptops.
You should cover the camera with double black strip.

Never dig your nose, never jer.k.-off, never fart, never tsurf naked with web camera uncovered.

Never make faces or dangerous remarks.

I know, the bunch of RHP members will show now arguing that:::
"it ...[text shortened]... ons to higher agents, and...

The chain can lead to the head of NSA and CIA.
And then what?

Come on, it is hard to imagine anyone watching me blissfully unimportant digging my nose in the privacy if my four walls.

You can try hiding under a rock so Jesus can't see you! 😉

Originally posted by vandervelde
Everyone with adequate equipment can watch you whilst you are in front of your laptops.
You should cover the camera with double black strip.

Never dig your nose, never jer.k.-off, never fart, never tsurf naked with web camera uncovered.

Never make faces or dangerous remarks.

I know, the bunch of RHP members will show now arguing that:::
"it ...[text shortened]... ons to higher agents, and...

The chain can lead to the head of NSA and CIA.
And then what?

Or just do what I do: don a mask of your favorite forum person when "enjoying" yourself in front of the computer.
For instance, before I start perusing the unmentionables section of the online JC Penney catalog, I make sure I've got my Kegge mask on nice and tight.

The first time I heard about ways to exploit Notebook cameras was Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
Or just do what I do: don a mask of your favorite forum person when "enjoying" yourself in front of the computer.
For instance, before I start perusing the unmentionables section of the online JC Penney catalog, I make sure I've got my Kegge mask on nice and tight.

You are definitely one of the more creepy characters here at RHP.

Originally posted by josephw
You can try hiding under a rock so Jesus can't see you! 😉

Have you not heard .. he's dead.

Originally posted by divegeester
You are definitely one of the more creepy characters here at RHP.

That's like getting the Uncle of the Year award from the MBLA.

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
That's like getting the Uncle of the Year award from the MBLA.

whatever floats your boat 🙄

To hack a webcam you need to be fairly smart. Firstly you need to know the IP address of the target home. That's not so hard if you ever received an email from the target. Secondly. You need to know that there is actually a camera somewhere, and that the router has been set up to allow external enquiries (port forwarding) to reach the camera. This generally requires the target to have consciously and deliberately set it up that way.

This is quite common as people want to watch their home while on holiday. But it does require some IT skills.

If not set up to forward requests to certain ports the router will simply ignore the millions of incoming requests it receives (firewall).

Then you need to know which port to probe. There are 64'000 ports. However, many cameras use a standard default port, like port 8000, so that could be guessed, probed or pinged. Lastly, you need to know the camera user name and password. Often it's "admin" and "admin" or "password".

People who are smart enough to set up their router with port forwarding are generally smart enough to change their camera password.

People who are less IT literate generally don't mess with their router. Since virtually every router is pre-configured with a firewall, that means random requests from strangers can't reach the camera.

Of course, if you are IT savvy, you can set your camera (and router) up so the whole world can watch without any password, but that's not generally the way the camera and router come out of the box.

The chance that you could be spied on with just a camera and a PC or Mac is low, even if you are being targeted. Getting through generally requires some kind of action by the target, like accepting requests, setting up the router, or disabling the firewall, or somehow falling victim to social engineering (e.g. "How on earth do you remember all your passwords?" Answer: "Oh, it's easy, I use the same password for everything. It's Barry1." However, if you ever let a Trojan into your system, it could do virtually anything that you can do, including opening ports on your router, and re-setting passwords.

Conclusion: if you are smart enough to play chess, you are probably smart enough to protect your system and you wouldn't disable your firewall. You would not leave the default passwords in place, nor click on those pesky zip or exe files emailed to you under the pretence of being an invoice or tax refund. You would never set your system up to be hacked nor leave home with the front door unlocked.

Originally posted by Trickyt57
To hack a webcam you need to be fairly smart. Firstly you need to know the IP address of the target home. That's not so hard if you ever received an email from the target. Secondly. You need to know that there is actually a camera somewhere, and that the router has been set up to allow external enquiries (port forwarding) to reach the camera. This gene ...[text shortened]... . You would never set your system up to be hacked nor leave home with the front door unlocked.

Er.... Can God hack your camera? 😉 😀

Great post by the way.

Originally posted by NoEarthlyReason
Er.... Can God hack your camera? 😉 😀

Great post by the way.

It's tough to get in unless the target leaves the door unlocked. (Conscious decision to ignore all the warnings.).