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FBI Director James Comey: Cover Up Your Webcam (thehill.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the sticky-note dept.

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.

18 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Some sensible things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "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.

    1. Re:Some sensible things by Z00L00K · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But you also need a switch on your microphone to turn it off. It's a bigger risk than the camera since eavesdropping on a conversation can reveal a lot more than the camera can when it comes to company secrets.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    2. Re:Some sensible things by guruevi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Another thing would don't trust your corporate overlords with 'managing' your laptop and stop using Windows as an admin user or stop using Windows altogether.

      Hacking a laptop is fairly hard to do if it's properly secured without remote access. Things like SELinux or Mac's Gatekeeper or any Unix-type OS can be set so that only specific applications have access to certain hardware.

      If you want to use tape, you should also snip out your microphone and speakers, glue your USB ports shut and fully encrypt your system with a third party, open source encryption.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    3. Re:Some sensible things by poofmeisterp · · Score: 5, Funny

      But you also need a switch on your microphone to turn it off. It's a bigger risk than the camera since eavesdropping on a conversation can reveal a lot more than the camera can when it comes to company secrets.

      Ah, but not if you're Comey. He encourages people to listen to his microphone to ensure transparency and fairness. Of course that microphone is in an enclosed break room in the "building next door".

      Har.

    4. Re:Some sensible things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

    5. Re:Some sensible things by btroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree - the microphone has been ignored largely, both on phones, tablet and laptops. I do think companies should provide a MECHANICAL means for disabling microphones and cameras.

      Anyone wanting to develop a SECURE device should be seriously looking at that option.

    6. Re:Some sensible things by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well if a good portion of the population votes for the actual person they feel will win, instead of wallowing in their own self delusion that the it is too corrupt for them to do anything.

      If you want to do something.
      1. Do your research on who is running and what they stand for.
      2. Pick the person who you like independant on if you think they will win or not, or if you think your vote will detract from your most likely candidate.
      3. Go to the polls and vote.

      Here is the cool thing about the power of voting third party. The two major parties are not stupid, they track trends and voter demographics like any big data company. While they may not necessary know who at every household has voted for they can get a feel of the political temperature within a few miles of the polling place.
      So while most polling places will most of the vote for the major party, your third party vote is useful unaveraged bit of information. There is this one guy who voted for third party out of a hundred who voted for the establishment. Now that data is useful. So if they voted Green Party, then that may tell the Democrats that your area may have some additional concern about environmentalism, if they voted libertarian then the person may be concerned about their personal liberty. Now if there are enough 3rd party votes say 1% overall trending in a direction, that will tell the parties that they will need to incorporate aspects of that third party into their base policy as to adapt to the electorates wants.

      While your vote may not win the election. It can change the direction of the next one.

      Take a look at the Tea Party. Like them or despise them, they were able to get national recognition and many of its aspects became core of the republican party. Because that group voted in local elections, than for their representatives and senators creating a large party growth. Sure they were backed by some big names that sneaked their agenda in it. However the people voted them in. While those liberals complaining on how bad those guys were stayed home during the off year election and allowed them to get in power.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    7. Re:Some sensible things by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I wish manufacturers would include a physical switch that simply disconnects the webcam (most use an internal USB connection for both video and audio) by physically breaking the link. No possible software bypass.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:Some sensible things by gfxguy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Except the parties don't "incorporate aspects of that third party into their base policy," they only say they will and then don't, with some lame explanation why... but they are still the major party that claims it supports that third party policy, so people vote for them anyway. I'm libertarian - people think republican party must be the party to vote for if you're libertarian (they falsely only look at certain economic issues), or you are effectively voting for democrats - but neither republicans nor democrats are libertarian in any way. The only difference is which of your liberties and freedoms they don't care about.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    9. Re:Some sensible things by Z00L00K · · Score: 3, Funny

      Switch the web cam to serve a random video stream of cats copulating maybe?

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    10. Re:Some sensible things by clodney · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Things like SELinux or Mac's Gatekeeper or any Unix-type OS can be set so that only specific applications have access to certain hardware.

      I wouldn't trust Mac, as it's closed source. But I don't blindly trust my Linux-based systems, either, as they run on closed hardware. Comey and the Three Letter Agencies have made open hardware all the more necessary.

      Open Source is perhaps modestly more trustworthy, but things like the obfuscated C contest and the fact of very long lived bugs in core elements like SSH prove that open source is no panacea. Whether done by the US or somebody else, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that there are intentional backdoors injected into lots of open source projects, and that it is done skillfully enough that they haven't been noticed.

    11. Re:Some sensible things by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny

      I agree - the microphone has been ignored largely, both on phones, tablet and laptops.

      Not to worry. Apple will be removing the mic too on all these too -- not for security but to free up space and improve water resistance. Surveys show that doing it on the iPhone will be a hard sell though.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  2. "people who don't have authority don't look at you by LichtSpektren · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Like the NSA, doing illegal mass surveillance on their own citizens?

  3. Morons.... the lot of them.... by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Informative

    "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.
  4. Something to hide? by nick.degraeve · · Score: 5, Funny

    It must mean he has something to hide, right? Because privacy is only needed for people who have something to hide.

  5. Cover microphones doesn't work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

  6. Some things shouldn't be software controlled. by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Some things shouldn't be software controlled. by Angeret · · Score: 4, Interesting

      A simple solution for this on laptops - a pair of small sliders, one a physical switch which cuts the mic line, the other a flag covering the camera lens (rear cameras on handheld devices are for someone else to figure out). Both would be near to the front bezel of the device so a small window could show a red mic symbol when the mic switch is moved to on, a green mic with a line shows when switched to off. For the camera, the green panel - off - would be solid and the red - on - would have a hole in it for the lens. You could still make the camera switch a camera power killer if so desired (might also be that rear camera solution for other devices?).

      The only problems I see are companies wanting to incorporate this and how small and idiot proof you could make the additions. This is simply an engineering solution with easy user access - no software required, no menu hunting, so no issues with "does it really cut out?"