|
ch1ck3n.s0up
Troubled Loner



Registered: 10/03/08
Posts: 2,573
Loc: Hunting Fungi
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
|
Cameras on Laptops
#19281776 - 12/15/13 11:21 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
I'm getting a little suspicious of cameras on laptops.
I've heard that they can be activated without the user's consent.
I've put electrical tape over mine.
Am I being paranoid? 
-------------------- "Inspiration ~ Move me brightly ~ light the song with sense and color ~ hold away despair ~ more than this I will not ask ~ faced with mysteries dark and vast ~ statements just seem vain at last" --Jerry Garcia, Terrapin Station "Officer, I'm going to remain silent, and I would like to speak with a lawyer. I'm not resisting, but I don't consent to any searches.
Edited by ch1ck3n.s0up (12/15/13 11:27 PM)
|
chowster
Happy Farmer

Registered: 11/20/13
Posts: 182
Last seen: 2 years, 11 months
|
|
Slightly. I mean tape on the camera is so easy though, so why not right?
I'm not sure how to check, but I feel it would be hard to activate a camera without the indicator light going on. I mean you can't even disable that light if you wanted to.
|
Humility
Working on it



Registered: 10/07/08
Posts: 6,745
Last seen: 7 years, 3 days
|
Re: Cameras on Laptops [Re: chowster]
#19282392 - 12/16/13 04:10 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
That's ridiculous. Coded instructions dictate when the light comes on and when it doesn't. Cameras don't need an "indicator light" to function, though the image may be less clear without background flash/lighting.
Definitely something to be worried about, especially considering the fix is so simple.
--------------------

|
Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist

Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,312
Last seen: 3 days, 14 hours
|
Re: Cameras on Laptops [Re: Humility]
#19283067 - 12/16/13 10:05 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
If someone hacks your laptop they can turn the camera on.
Whether it is possible to turn it on without the light coming on depends on the design of the camera.
Old laptops are a great source of tiny, cheap usb cameras.
|
Herbologist
Grrratata



Registered: 05/09/10
Posts: 7,471
Loc: Casa Bonita
Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
|
|
plenty of articles about FBI, NSA and other hackers tapping into all kinds of cameras.
it probly wont happen to you in your life time but that also doesnt mean it wont.
my girlfriend and I threw some tape up and turn the xbox kinect towards the wall when not in use
-------------------- Shroomery Law: Don't piss off the leftist mods & their friends!
|
chowster
Happy Farmer

Registered: 11/20/13
Posts: 182
Last seen: 2 years, 11 months
|
Re: Cameras on Laptops [Re: Humility]
#19285914 - 12/16/13 08:42 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Humility said: That's ridiculous. Coded instructions dictate when the light comes on and when it doesn't. Cameras don't need an "indicator light" to function, though the image may be less clear without background flash/lighting.
Definitely something to be worried about, especially considering the fix is so simple.
Lol per computer model tho? No one is coding for all the computers models made.
|
TiN 42
Be the tree



Registered: 12/15/11
Posts: 1,242
|
Re: Cameras on Laptops [Re: chowster]
#19285991 - 12/16/13 09:04 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
my newer computer doesn't have a indicator light been meaning to tape it. going to garage to get tape right now.
--------------------
MUSH LOVE
|
ch1ck3n.s0up
Troubled Loner



Registered: 10/03/08
Posts: 2,573
Loc: Hunting Fungi
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
|
Re: Cameras on Laptops [Re: chowster]
#19286050 - 12/16/13 09:23 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
chowster said: Lol per computer model tho? No one is coding for all the computers models made.
Honestly I have several laptops and none of them have indicator lights on the cameras 
For a hacker probably difficult; for The Man with the cooperation of Apple and Microsoft, I'm sure that it's piece of cake; a simple remote call to turn the camera on, pipe the results back through the 'net, and take a nice little secret peek inside peoples' homes. Mind-bogglingly simple.
I've seen stories about this... http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/12/pennsylvania.school.webcams.settlement/
Edited by ch1ck3n.s0up (12/16/13 09:31 PM)
|
chowster
Happy Farmer

Registered: 11/20/13
Posts: 182
Last seen: 2 years, 11 months
|
|
Funkay, all mine have lights.
Good to know. Maybe I prefer the light.
|
Herbologist
Grrratata



Registered: 05/09/10
Posts: 7,471
Loc: Casa Bonita
Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
|
Re: Cameras on Laptops [Re: chowster]
#19287907 - 12/17/13 10:25 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
chowster said: Funkay, all mine have lights.
Good to know. Maybe I prefer the light.
Doesn't matter. They can turn your camera on without any indicator lights turning on if thats what they want
-------------------- Shroomery Law: Don't piss off the leftist mods & their friends!
|
Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist

Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,312
Last seen: 3 days, 14 hours
|
|
Quote:
Herbologist said: Doesn't matter. They can turn your camera on without any indicator lights turning on if thats what they want
Citation needed.
I just looked at a laptop camera circuit board and it looked like it was wired so the LED comes on whenever the camera is activated. There does not appear to be any way to do it in software; you would have to take apart the laptop if you wanted to make that modification.
|
Enlil
OTD God-King




Registered: 08/16/03
Posts: 65,967
Loc: Uncanny Valley
|
|
"The FBI has been able to covertly activate a computer’s camera — without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording — for several years, and has used that technique mainly in terrorism cases or the most serious criminal investigations, said Marcus Thomas, former assistant director of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico, now on the advisory board of Subsentio, a firm that helps telecommunications carriers comply with federal wiretap statutes."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/2013/12/06/352ba174-5397-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html
-------------------- Censoring opposing views since 2014. Ask an Attorney Fuck the Amish
|
Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist

Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,312
Last seen: 3 days, 14 hours
|
Re: Cameras on Laptops [Re: Enlil]
#19290905 - 12/17/13 10:29 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
|
ch1ck3n.s0up
Troubled Loner



Registered: 10/03/08
Posts: 2,573
Loc: Hunting Fungi
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
|
|
Basically the same concept as turning on a phone's microphone remotely.
-------------------- "Inspiration ~ Move me brightly ~ light the song with sense and color ~ hold away despair ~ more than this I will not ask ~ faced with mysteries dark and vast ~ statements just seem vain at last" --Jerry Garcia, Terrapin Station "Officer, I'm going to remain silent, and I would like to speak with a lawyer. I'm not resisting, but I don't consent to any searches.
|
JB76
Stranger
Registered: 10/14/13
Posts: 55
Last seen: 9 years, 5 months
|
|
If you want to get freaked out, Google "Remote Access Tool"
It's not just the FBI and NSA who can get into computers and control them. Teenagers are doing it for fun. They spam out links that, if clicked, give them access to the user's computer without that user's knowledge. Then they start messing with the person by deleting files, playing scary or obscene videos, etc.
They watch the person's shocked and distressed reactions through the camera and capture the video so they can upload it and share it with friends for the lulz.
A RAT is astonishingly easy to deploy on someone who is not security savvy (i.e., the majority of people). You don't have to be a computer expert to do it, you could learn it in one day. Given that the US government can get a virus into an Iranian nuclear facility, it's a trivial matter for it to use a RAT. The obstacles would not be technical, but rather legal, economic, etc.
|
JB76
Stranger
Registered: 10/14/13
Posts: 55
Last seen: 9 years, 5 months
|
Re: Cameras on Laptops [Re: JB76]
#19292778 - 12/18/13 10:50 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
|
luvdemboomers
loner with a boner

Registered: 01/11/13
Posts: 5,054
|
Re: Cameras on Laptops [Re: JB76]
#19295192 - 12/18/13 09:07 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
My camera has been hacked. Whoever hacked it displayed a video of me jacking off on my screen. I keep a piece of tape over it now. Jacking off knowing someone might be watching
Edited by luvdemboomers (12/18/13 09:10 PM)
|
chowster
Happy Farmer

Registered: 11/20/13
Posts: 182
Last seen: 2 years, 11 months
|
|
Quote:
luvdemboomers said: My camera has been hacked. Whoever hacked it displayed a video of me jacking off on my screen. I keep a piece of tape over it now. Jacking off knowing someone might be watching
Lol that sucks. They'd have lots of footage of me doing that if my desktop had a cam hooked in.
|
ch1ck3n.s0up
Troubled Loner



Registered: 10/03/08
Posts: 2,573
Loc: Hunting Fungi
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
|
Re: Cameras on Laptops [Re: chowster]
#19302117 - 12/20/13 09:55 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
chowster said:
Quote:
luvdemboomers said: My camera has been hacked. Whoever hacked it displayed a video of me jacking off on my screen. I keep a piece of tape over it now. Jacking off knowing someone might be watching
Lol that sucks. They'd have lots of footage of me doing that if my desktop had a cam hooked in.
Have we just discovered a new porn category here!?
Hacked webcam vids of people spanking their monkey to porn!!! 
a.k.a. "Hacking Off" for short--a portmanteau word combining "Squirting," "Hacking," and "Jerking Off!"
Whacking off to a vid of someone whacking off to porn! How ironic... file this one under /gif/ on 4chan!
Anyone here Japanese?
Technically speaking, we could also call it "Recursive masturbation."
Now, that's the value of brainstorming. 
(Maybe I need to get out more...)
-------------------- "Inspiration ~ Move me brightly ~ light the song with sense and color ~ hold away despair ~ more than this I will not ask ~ faced with mysteries dark and vast ~ statements just seem vain at last" --Jerry Garcia, Terrapin Station "Officer, I'm going to remain silent, and I would like to speak with a lawyer. I'm not resisting, but I don't consent to any searches.
Edited by ch1ck3n.s0up (12/20/13 11:50 AM)
|
luvdemboomers
loner with a boner

Registered: 01/11/13
Posts: 5,054
|
|
Quote:
ch1ck3n.s0up said:
Quote:
chowster said:
Quote:
luvdemboomers said: My camera has been hacked. Whoever hacked it displayed a video of me jacking off on my screen. I keep a piece of tape over it now. Jacking off knowing someone might be watching
Lol that sucks. They'd have lots of footage of me doing that if my desktop had a cam hooked in.
Have we just discovered a new porn category here!?
Hacked webcam vids of people spanking their monkey to porn!!! 
a.k.a. "Hacking Off" for short--a portmanteau word combining "Squirting," "Hacking," and "Jerking Off!"
Whacking off to a vid of someone whacking off to porn! How ironic... file this one under /gif/ on 4chan!
Anyone here Japanese?
Technically speaking, we could also call it "Recursive masturbation."
Now, that's the value of brainstorming. 
(Maybe I need to get out more...)
LOL
|
|