Should I Put Tape Over My Laptop Camera

A curious photo circulating online of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal laptop has ignited a conversation about data security, and how people tin protect themselves against hackers.

This photo, showing Mark Zuckerberg's laptop in the groundwork, sheds calorie-free on the steps he (or his security team) takes to protect his data from hackers. (Chris Olson/Twitter)

A photo circulating online of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal laptop has ignited a chat about data security, and how people can protect themselves confronting hackers.

The photo shows a grinning Zuckerberg sitting next to his laptop. But the curious thing is that his reckoner'south photographic camera and microphone are covered with tape.

Tape? Yes, tape.

Roofing a computer's photographic camera doesn't protect the device from existence hacked, just it does foreclose a hacker from being able to see whatever the camera sees. Covering a laptop's microphone can muffle the sound enough to prevent a hacker from listening in, uninvited.

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Several security experts say it's not paranoid — it's practiced sense. Even if y'all're not a high-profile target similar Zuckerberg.

"Information technology's only preventative maintenance — it removes the incertitude of, 'what if somebody got into his arrangement,'" said Dave Lewis, a global security advocate who works for Akamai Technologies.

Lewis said he's been covering the cameras on his own computers with Mail service-it notes since the early 2000s.

"The easiest mode to remove that lingering incertitude is to just slap some tape over information technology. Problem solved."

How it works

A hacker tin become admission to your entire computer, without your knowledge, relatively hands, through dodgy email links, for example.

"When y'all click on that link, something installs in the background considering, past virtue of your action, you've immune the software to install on your organization," said Lewis.

Molly Sauter, a PhD candidate at Montreal's McGill University and the author of The Coming Swarm: DDoS Actions, Hacktivism, and Civil Defiance on the Internet, agreed, saying "tape is the best."

"It's easy to grasp and you can command it," she said.

In security testing, Lewis said he'south been able to breach a organization and have control of a person's laptop photographic camera without their knowledge.

"And it doesn't even ever trip the light that shows the camera is live," he added.

In a fashion, the Zuckerberg photograph confirms that zippo is really safety online — for all the anti-virus software out in that location, a piece of tape may exist 1 of the most effective tools available.

'Air gapping'

The idea that someone could hack a laptop camera is specially unsettling given the fact that many people keep their laptops in their living rooms and bedrooms. Hackers could apply photos or information from the computer for extortion.

And it's as well incredibly invasive.

Sauter says using a physical object such as tape is a proficient class of extra security. She said this is like to the concept of "air gapping," which is when computers are non continued to the internet in any fashion — this prevents whatsoever hacker from being able to access the estimator's files via the internet.

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"Information technology'south concrete security that seems really basic, just it'southward also the most secure," she said.

Similarly, putting a Mail service-information technology or a piece of tape over a laptop's camera is lo-fi, only it offers good physical protection. Sauter said she'south been roofing her laptop camera for the by 4 or five years.

Women, political dissidents at higher hazard

Unsurprisingly to many, women tend to be targets for this kind of hacking.

"Women on the internet get a lot of attention. Some of it good, a lot of it's bad," said Sauter. "And a lot of this attending really tends to be highly sexualized, and it tends to be highly threatening."

It's more common than we remember, said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Denizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Diplomacy at the University of Toronto.

Women, as well as political dissidents, members of activist groups, and journalists are frequently targets of a kind of hack known as 'ratting.' (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Scott-Railton said this practice is chosen "ratting," adding sometimes hackers will trade access to hacked computers.

He said the same kind of software used to hack women's webcams is used to hack political dissidents, members of activist groups, and journalists.

"These are people that are regularly targeted past different hacking groups because of their piece of work, and in some cases we have evidence that they're spied on through their webcams," he said.

And — surprise, surprise — Scott-Railton also covers his laptop camera.

Best steps to protect yourself

Lewis said the steps a person can have to protect confronting this kind of intrusion depends on the level of risk they're comfortable with.

"If they have a bad addiction of walking around the house naked, or giving out secrets like their banking information, admittedly [cover the photographic camera]," he said.

Sauter suggests using two-stride authentication processes for email and social media accounts.

She too recommends the tape method — but don't use the clear kind.