Big Brother is Watching You

Yep, even Mark Zuckerberg and the Director of the FBI cover up their cameras.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who automatically rolls their eyes whenever they see someone with a covered laptop camera.

However, in a conference at The Center for Stratigic and International Studies, Director James Comey defended the usage of tape over his own webcam, “There’s some sensible things you should be doing, and that’s one of them.”

If that wasn’t unsettling enough, in June, a playful Instagram picture of the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, revealed that even he has some privacy concerns of his own.

Maybe this sounds like some crazy conspiracy pulled straight out of Orwell’s 1984, but we cannot deny that we have become so used to the omnipresence of the Internet in our lives that we have grown to blindly trusting our technology. Even though we’d like to trust our technology to be strong and impenetrable, your technology is more at risk than you’d like to think.

The most common way that hackers creep on you is through clickjacking — where hackers make an invisible button over ads so when you close them out, they are granted access to your camera. Not only can these hackers take pictures of you, but they can also record and save live video footage. You are especially at risk when you hook up to public networks.

Are you aware of how long you leave your laptop open?

While I was on the topic with a friend, she told me about how she used to leave her laptop open at night to listen to music until she’d fell asleep:

“One morning I woke up and the little green camera light was illumiated. I checked to make sure that none of my photo apps were open, and after that I knew that someone had gained access to my camera — it freaked me out, I was terrified.”

Once your camera is hacked, it can be turned on at any time from any location. The only way to know that your camera is on is by the small LED light next to the camera; if this light goes on for no apparent reason — take action fast.

But the real question is, why do people do this?

Most people just do it for fun. The software is quick and easy and some people just can’t find something better to do with their free time than to watch you. Others maliciously hack cameras in order to stalk users. They will save hundreds of photos and videos of you without your knowledge and could possibly blackmail you with them later.

So what can you do to prevent this?

First of all, be aware of the websites, networks, and downloads present on your device. Be cautious when downloading new and/or free internet software, as these are the sites that hackers are likely to set up their bases.

With that in mind, it is dramatically easier to keep track of the traffic on your laptop with the aid of anti-virus software. Anti-virus is software designed to detect and destroy computer viruses as well as other invasive software such as worms, trojans, adware etc. Although these programs do have a cost, it is well worth the investment in order to maintain a clean, and bug-free device.

Why is this important?

The reality of the situation is, even though technology is constantly changing and becoming stronger, hackers are only a few downloads away from your camera and God knows what else. Might you remember that one guy who chose to question cybersecurity, Edward Snowden, lives in exile to this day for revealing that our government has easy and unquestionable access to our personal information. It’s stupid to think that only public figures are at risk when we walk around each day with devices storing important passwords, bank accounts, and other valuable personal information.

So do yourself a favor and cover your laptop camera, it’s the least you can do.