some guys produced a whitepaper a while ago on how the macbook built in webcams could be turned on without turning on the warning light.

Apple changed to a different system since (i.e., you can't use the same trick anymore) but I'm sure the new one also has some vulnerability, possibly built in deliberately.

Imagine how sweet it must be for those lonely NSA dudes, being able to peer lovingly at their crush through a hacked webcam.

Oh my god that last part killed me. You'd think they wouldn't be losers though

It could be the premise for a hot new romantic comedy :)

Now that's the spirit! But I feel like whoever is on the other side of that camera is some very awkward nerdy man.

YES, if stupid hackers (imbeciles using ready made hacking tools) can do it, why can't a trillion dollar secretive government agency ?

Probably. But they're just going to see the sticky side of some electrical tape. The microphone though, that's tougher to defeat.

Pretty much, my comp and phone are covered, but the mic is wide open, it would be nice to be able to "cover" that, too.

But then I won't hear your soft, luscious voice /u/ninekilnmegalith

Best solution I can figure out, on Windows at least, is to disable all the audio input drivers. I don't know if that will actually work though. I'm quite certain the NSA can reach out to any Windows computer and do whatever the fuck they want, so the protection would have to be hardware / physical instead of software / configuration. Unplug the mic from motherboard. :)

It's usually easy enough to open it up and physically disconnect the microphone, if you're really that worried about it.

You could probably even wire in a tiny toggle switch if you wanted to.

Edit - I love how someone literally just went through this post and downvoted every comment I made. Sorry for trying to be helpful, I guess.

I get your name is satire, but you are kind of asking for it, lol. BTW I didn't downvote, just saw your comment and thought I'd point that out.

Electrical tape for the camera lens, and if you dont want to disable the mic, keep the laptop next to a music device playing loud Barry Manilow music in an endless loop, when not in use.

It will mask all other sounds in the room and drive them insane.

Or be so soothing they will enjoy a very relaxed nap.

Which is why mine is covered and my battery pulled when not in use. Nor is the modem or router plugged in unless I'm online. And the cell phone sleeps in the kitchen, not the bedroom

Really? And here I am trying to get them to turn it on because I want to say hi to the camera..

Why would you want that?

I don't know I'm just curious. I can imagine someone sitting there like wtf.

You would be amazed at what they can do.

your camera is nsa

If someone tells you the NSA can turn on your camera, they are manipulating you and trying to mislead you. Of they are just ignorant, passing on what was told to them.

The truth is that computers can be controlled remotely. This means anyone could turn on your camera if they could gain access and knew what they were doing. Does this include the NSA? Of course. But it also includes the rest of the human race. By making this seem like an NSA-specific risk, your teacher is manipulating you to further an agenda.

Yeah I know that. I don't take most of the things he says seriously, he's really paranoid. He's the wackiest conspiracy theorist I've ever met. He's literally shaking from fear sometimes.

Why would they need to do it?

I'd ask your teacher to provide proof that they can do this.

Personally, I doubt it. Many of the people that, hypothetically, they'd want to do this to would likely be savvy enough to be properly protected against such an attack, as well as capable of monitoring their network to detect the traffic that a live camera feed would create. Wouldn't be worth the risk to them, IMO.

This happened back in 2010. Just google RAT webcam to see how criminals and perverts are doing this already. And of course others want to do it, legally.

Now, can the NSA just open your webcam's feed on any computer without you noticing just like that? Doubtful, physical access to your equipment is usually needed. But it's still a very real possibility.

Yeah, I remember that story breaking. If one of my kids is ever offered a school-owned laptop, the first thing I'm doing is opening it and physically disabling the webcam and microphone.

But that's the school's owned equipment.

While physical access is the easiest means of doing this, I believe I've read that there is also malware out there that can let this happen remotely; however, any user with half a lick of sense wouldn't fall for that.

Young naive teenagers, on the other hand, unfortunately, sometimes do.

It's not malware that allows this. It's a built in capability of the operating system. Computers are DESIGNED to be remotely controlled. If you can use a mouse and keyboard to control a computer from 2 feet away, why couldn't you do it from across the world?

The answer is you can. These are computers, why is anyone surprised they can be controlled remotely???

The FBI was reported to have this capability for at least 9 years, even with the cellphone powered off.

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html

That's a bit of a different beast though. I can't personally directly monitor or control what cellular traffic I allow to be transmitted or received from my cellphone (short of removing the battery).

However, I do have that kind of control over my computer network.

...And now I'm thinking about modding my cellphone to put in a kill switch to cut the power. Maybe I've been hanging out with you guys too long and am starting to catch the paranoid. :(

Yeah I know that. I don't take most of the things he says seriously, he's really paranoid. He's the wackiest conspiracy theorist I've ever met. He's literally shaking from fear sometimes.