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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.
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!
I trust desktop software to behave as far as I can throw it. Sure it's possible to bug anything, but after the horror of video conferencing software lighting the camera up unexpectedly while I was in "work from home" attire, never again.
"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.
No it doesn't. At a cursory glance yes it can because it'll probably switch the default input, but in software you can still access each input source independently. So a trojan could continue listening on the microphone array in your screen even when you have your headset plugged in.