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FBI Director James Comey: Cover Up Your Webcam (thehill.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: The head of the FBI on Wednesday defended putting a piece of tape over his personal laptop's webcam, claiming the security step was a common sense one that most should take. "There's some sensible things you should be doing, and that's one of them," Director James Comey said during a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "You go into any government office and we all have the little camera things that sit on top of the screen," he added. "They all have a little lid that closes down on them. "You do that so that people who don't have authority don't look at you. I think that's a good thing." Comey was pilloried online earlier this year, after he revealed that he puts a piece of tap over his laptop camera to keep away prying eyes. The precaution is a common one among security advocates, given the relative ease of hacking laptop cameras. But many found it ironic for Comey, who this year launched a high profile battle against Apple to gain access to data locked inside of the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorists. Many viewed that fight as a referendum on digital privacy.
"There's some sensible things you should be doing, and that's one of them,"
Another sensible thing you should be doing is using encryption.
And voting out anyone who thinks that the FBI's warrantless wiretapping is sensible.
Ive seen this before from some of my customers and yes I've thought of it. Since its possible I guess its a step you need to take but why stop there. His phone has two cameras and they need some tape also. That pinhole in the wall may be sporting a camera also. How do you know the air conditioner vents doesn't have camera. Oh MY GoD they are watching ME!
If someone has installed in your computer a piece of software that enables him to activate your webcan disabling the led your webcam should be the least of your worries.
C'moon, really? If your high school can cut it on, who can't?
Those nasty guys watching you are also listening to every word you say...
He also recommends dban for your email server.
is compromised, then you have bigger things to worry about than the webcam. This isn't "sensible", we shouldn't have to live our lives in terror, expecting invisible, omnipotent foes to be watching us at all times.
If it's not compromised, you don't cover it. And yes, if you run Windows 10 or Windows 7/8/8.1 with spyware updates, it IS compromised.
And by did that....I mean my PHONE camera, because I would never leave a camera connected all the time to my desktop PC anyway.
BOTH cameras on my phone are covered by pieces of plastic that need to be moved aside physically in order to take pictures. Did that the very day I bought the phone.
However, I looked for actual products to do this....couldn't find a one. Not a single case with camera covers built in, not a single accessory available.....sad....very sad.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
But knowning Comey like I do, he crossdresses even at the office! so I can see why he only is thinking of video.
Like the NSA, doing illegal mass surveillance on their own citizens?
Most of those seem to also have on-board microphones. Given what they can determine with microphones these days, that seems like the greater risk.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
"Well, in the case of things like encryption, the situation is completely different. When it comes to prying eyes, what I do is considered fine in the category of double standards, while people encrypting data is not; especially when there is something I want to see in an encrypted set. I have the authority, because I gave it to myself, so I can look. I mean, um, all of my staff and the agency can look."
Not a real quote, of course.
This sounds like another psychological cover-my-ass gig where someone who lost a battle tries to encourage something to ensure they internally still feel in control. Sort of like the "Well, it didn't work after your suggestions, but I planned for that to happen" crap.
stare directly into the camera and slowly stroke off. establish dominance.
is compromised, then you have bigger things to worry about than the webcam. This isn't "sensible", we shouldn't have to live our lives in terror, expecting invisible, omnipotent foes to be watching us at all times.
If it's not compromised, you don't cover it. And yes, if you run Windows 10 or Windows 7/8/8.1 with spyware updates, it IS compromised.
So, you recommend to not be paranoid while labeling the masses who run any version of Windows released in the last fucking decade as "compromised".
Feel free to put down your Catch-22 paint brush anytime. Needless to say, people can't quite make out your "art", and this is hardly a convincing argument for Apple or Linux.
If someone installs a piece of malware in your computer /phone they won't be able to record you with your webcam. They will be able to access to your files, microphone, key strokes... but not your webcam! what a relief, uh?
"You go into any government office and we all have the little camera things that sit on top of the screen"
Why the hell are they not ordering real pro laptops without the camera? my Dell Precision 7510 does not have a camera and company wide we all understand that a camera on the laptop is 100% useless in business. if you need to do a video call you use one of the conference rooms.
we are not even high security and we dont have cameras. what the hell are they doing ordering laptops with cameras at their level?
So the director of the FBI has a insecure laptop...... This is why we cant do shit in this country in law enforcement.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
It must mean he has something to hide, right? Because privacy is only needed for people who have something to hide.
Invisible omnipotent foes ARE watching you at all times. What do you think Apple, Google and Microsoft are? Your buddies?
Both sides
I don't use their crap, they don't watch me.
.. how about not buying that crap in the first place ? ;)
The different parts of executive branch can't even count on being safe from each other, when their culture is to disregard the constitution for some perceived higher purpose.
...but please, don't encrypt your mails and your harddisk BECAUSE I'M TOO FUCKING STUPID TO DO IT MYSELF!
Gah. Had to get that out.
-- James Comey
The head of the FBI on Wednesday
That guy's old news. What does Thursday's head of the FBI say?
FBI Director James Comey: Cover Up Your Webcam
Don't tell me what to do, chief. Maybe being perved on by hackers is my thing! You can't judge me!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Again, no one seems to care to think that if someone is able to access the camera at all you have already been compromised. Covering the camera isn't going to stop everything else they can do with your system with that kind of access.
If he's worried about someone hacking his laptop and turning on his webcam without him realizing it, then he isn't using his laptop in a secure and reasonable way.
He is also overlooking the fact that voice recordings are generally at least as valuable as video (unless he is worried they are going to record his silent meetings with prostitutes or something), and covering up the webcam doesn't generally do anything to prevent sound from being recorded. If someone else has control of your webcam, they almost certainly have the ability to record sound using your system when the webcam is blocked by tape. Equally important, if they are recording sound with no video, they can record much longer time-wise than if they are recording sounds with video.
But ultimately if he was using a secure OS, or at least using his OS of choice in a moderately secure way - he shouldn't have to worry about this. If he's spending most of his day falling into clickbait and loading malware, he's going to get what he has coming.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
He's a spy nutter.
Ezekiel 23:20
As a side note, sticking tape over the microphone holes does not work, no matter how thick the layers of tape. You can confirm this yourself by sticking tape over mics on your phone and then using a recording app. It will still record audio that is clear enough to understand.
A modern tablet or phone has enough microphones in a mic arrange, and enough sensitivity that sound coming through the case can be recorded easily. The best you can achieve is to make it muffled.
Snowden used a fridge to stop stuff recording (it is airtight and bulky enough to stop sound so phones inside cannot record). It's not useful as a faraday cage, because a lot of the spyware records stuff and sends it only when opportune (e.g. on Wifi, or when you're sending lots of other data to conceal the transmission). So a faraday cage would not help, it could still record audio and video and send it later.
FBI head tapes over his cameras, Mark Zuckerberg does, Anonymous Cowards does, so *you* definitely should.
Perhaps you recall the case of the Pennsylvania schools that installed spyware on their laptops and recorded kids at home using the computer? Well if you take a typical Android phone, it has lots of apps pre-installed that have camera access. So I noticed that Microsoft Word came pre-installed, and when I hooked the camera API, Word was being started periodically by Microsoft Skydrive, and accessing the camera api.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2521075/windows-pcs/pennsylvania-schools-spying-on-students-using-laptop-webcams--claims-lawsuit.html
You naive little fool.
is when you do not have a record light on your webcam, otherwise when the webcam is on, the record light is on, and it's a hardware mechanism and it is impossible to get video without the record light coming on.
That switch to turn off your microphone and video camera. Should not just send a digital bit to the OS to decide what to do with it. It should physically cut circuit that provides the device power. Also the same with the LED on camera to show that it is recording this shouldn't be a feature that is programmed in the software it should be hard in the device.
The only real trade off with a mechanical switch is that it will take up more space. So your device will be a bit bulkier and heavier... However my point of view is how much security do you want to compromise for form factor.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
And what about the microphone in it?
I'd get ten times the amount of critical information from a compromise from a microphone than I would a webcam.
And almost all webcams are microphones too and/or require no more effort to compromise. If you can see down the webcam without the user noticing, you can silently record the microphone too.
Dumb security advice from a guy who doesn't understand IT.
Just in case you missed it, James Comey has lied Congress, has lied to the American public and is not to be believed, listened to or repeated.
Just sayin'.
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
I humbly await the legislation that requires all tape to be manufactured with back doors
Replace the A/V driver that handles the webcam with module that mimics the webcam driver interface but streams a video file of the user's selection. My choice would be a video of a donkey show.
You shouldn't have to put a piece of tape over your webcam/destroy your mic to enjoy your privacy. Manufactures as a mater of course should include hardware enforced privacy measures that at the very minimum let you know when the devices are actively sending information to the computer. By default the mic/camera should not have power, and when they are supplied power (when in use) an LED should be lit to notify the user, this kind of measure is part of the reason why students suspected that they were being spied on when a school district used laptops to monitor them (the school tried to dismiss it as a "software fault") even while at home and in some cases even in their bedrooms. The problem is these days lots of manufacturers are lazy and rely on software based functions that can be overridden. Even for "always listening" devices like Amazons Echo it shouldn't be too difficult to create a separate chip that listens for a keyword (like "Hey Echo") before sending information to the rest of the device.
He has been doing devious shit for years for the clintons, hsbc, NWO, obama, etc... Security only matters when he has to hide something, otherwise how will he get the dirt he needs to control washington. All in the name of protecting the country you know.... snicker, yar, snicker, these agents are so gullible.
Maybe depriving adversaries of the ability to watch you makes good sense, but what if your adversary is law enforcement? You mighty have a reasonable expectation of privacy but that right is not absolute when law enforcement has probable cause to believe that your camera might provide evidence of a crime.
I think the American people need to have an adult conversation with Comey, about his criminal-aiding advice and whether or not cameras (including Comey's own camera) should be allowed to "go dark."
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Joke's on him.
This is my third elitebook from my company - I've just given up trying to resolve the fact that the sound card won't work and the webcam only displays a single solid green image. .: I'm apparently way ahead of this advice - this laptop appears to be more secure by design.
Good thing the FBI director made sure nobody can see what he looks like when someone hacks his laptop and steals sensitive information.
for Windows: Control Panel -> Device Manager -> Imaging Devices -> Right click on webcam, and select 'Disable'
poof! no video or audio. Check occasionally to confirm it's still disabled.
You can put something over a camera, these days an external web cam may have a microphone, the laptop itself may have a mic, if you have a headset plugged in it may have a mic. If a webcam can be turned on to see you then a mic can and it can get much more information and it is harder to block (can't just put some paper over it).
How does one secure all the mics via hardware or (software that can' be overridden).
With so many people doing this you would think laptop manufacturers would offer laptops without cameras. I don't tape my laptop camera. If someone wants to watch me through the laptop camera that's their problem. However, I've never used my laptops camera and never will. If I could have I would have purchased my laptop without a camera.
WITH ENCRYPTION! :P
FBI and NSA Clearly wants to stop looking at pictures of naked fat guys and I say: "No way!" Make them watch! That is the least we can do. It is the only revenge we can exact on them. Wave that dong, juggle those layers of fat right at the camera. Make them see what their eyes cannot un-see. FFS. What are they going to do with it? Show your naked pictures to your girlfriend? Come on, you don't have any anyway. So pull that tape and make them suffer!
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
... use an OS and as many apps that you can fundamentally trust (open source) to not allow unauthorized access to your webcam. Next make sure you buy hardware from a vendor you can trust. Finally practice some good computer use habits like not clicking on every attachment.
Covering your webcam is like closing the barn door after the horses escaped. If someone can monitor your webcam, they can also access all your files and basically do anything else they want to your computer.
At least for half the population.
Whom you're blocking with the piece of tape is pretty unimportant. The tape works against perverts, Microsoft, and the NSA all the same. There is simply no reason not to do it. (Which is equivalent to there being no for reason laptop vendors to not put a sliding cover over their camera, except it got eliminated as a cost-cutting measure.)
As diretor of FBI is this the extent of his personal opsec? Honest people have been saying this for years. Eventually all the other shit FOSS and privacy folks have explained for years will become necessary and then we're fucked by then.
shouldn't laptop come with an option where you can manually cover camera/microphone?
and he got fucked over by his own party since they were already in Hillary's pocket before he started. Unfortunately he decided not to go back to being an independent once he has people's attention.
Its repugnantly nihilistic to throw one's hands in the air and just "accept" that there might be some malevolent code running on one's computer, particularly coming from someone like the head of the FBI.
It represents a failure. A failure to accept responsibility and know how one's computer works, a failure to understand the integrity of the applications that one uses, a failure to understand the integrity of the operating system, and many other things.
Its not a wise nor prudent move, its failure.
""You go into any government office and we all have the little camera things that sit on top of the screen," he added"
The most concerning this isn't that he covers his camera, it is that the government offices he goes into have mostly computers WITH CAMERAS!! WTF???
Anybody dealing with sensitive information should not have a camera on their computer.
What specific offices is he going in? Is security that lacksidasical in the FBI?
They can access far more damaging things on your computer. Banking info, passwords, impersonate you, etc.
Webcam? All they can access are a photo of you picking your nose while in your underwear.