It's not paranoia: Hackers can use your webcam to spy on you

by Marco Tapia

in management-it-consulting,

August 22, 2016

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook does it. So does FBI Director James Comey. Should you?

 

Hackers can access your laptop via the video and audio portals, or the wireless dongle on your mouse.

What they do, is cover up their laptop webcams – sometimes with just a piece of opaque tape – blocking scuzzball computer hackers from activating the built-in cameras and spying on them. Perhaps in their bedrooms.

The hackers do it using a type of malware, or malicious software, that lets them remotely hijack computers. In hacker lingo, they take control and “enslave” computers. FBI Director Comey admitted in a question-and-answer session April 6 at Kenyon College in Ohio that he saw a colleague with tape over his webcam and decided to follow suit. Read more

Marco Tapia

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