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Is it possible for someone to hack into your webcam?

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Original post by Pikachū
iirc they get the current from the same wire so it's not possible to have one on without the other


Yes it is lol look it up yourself If you don't believe me
Reply 21
Original post by Kravence
A Trojan hack can easily bypass it and turn off the light so you won't know


What...that is so messed up. I'm scared now.
Reply 22
Wow, I can't even have some me time nowadays without being watched. :bawling:
Original post by Kravence
Yes it is lol look it up yourself If you don't believe me


It depends on the laptop/camera. As I said most laptops now use the same wire so it's physically impossible to power the camera without the light.

You would have to tamper with the laptop physically to do that.
Original post by EC
Yeah, but wouldn't the light turn on automatically, even if hacked?


No it’s very simple for any Linux user to make Trojan or Backdoor and send it to you. When the Backdoor start working on your device, the hacker can do a lot of thing such as taking screenshot and access your Webcam. One important thing you should know about all hardware is that they are linked to software and drivers for interaction with and by the rest of your system. Theoretically any hacker with a minimum of brain could alter a device driver and remove the "light on" function and then find a sneaky way of distributing.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 25
There is a way for them to turn on the webcam without having the light turn on. I have placed a piece of washi tape over my in-built laptop camera and taken the mic out of the laptop too. I bought an external webcam with a mic in it so if I needed to use it, I can. When i'm not using the external one, I unplug it compleatly.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by EC
Yeah, but wouldn't the light turn on automatically, even if hacked?


They can easily edit registries, etc.
I once ratted someone and installed spyware on their PC, good ol' days.
A correction to the above* since it is connected to a network there's not really much need to inject code, just to discretely send packets to and from your connection to them with the right tools.
Don't GCHQ do this all the time?
Lol yea. It's like the most common hack ever
Original post by Cherub012
Don't GCHQ do this all the time?


:nothing:
Original post by Rachel58
I'm not sure if I was being 'watched', but I got this awful virus on my laptop, thought I got rid of it, then a few days later my webcam popped up for no reason then shut off again. A week later when I tried to turn my laptop on and got a message with a picture of myself displayed saying if I didn't give money to so and so, I'd go to jail.

Really bad virus, very annoying, luckily my dad got rid of it after that :smile:


That must have been terrifying!! :s-smilie:

I was looking at Timehop a few weeks ago and there were some videos of me (from Facebook apparently) just sat using the computer, but when I checked my uploaded photos and videos on Facebook, I couldn't find the video anywhere!!??
So basically Facebook had a video of me that I hadn't even uploaded and wasn't even available on my profile :eek:
Original post by Pikachū
It depends on the laptop/camera. As I said most laptops now use the same wire so it's physically impossible to power the camera without the light.

You would have to tamper with the laptop physically to do that.


Original post by LeTamoul
Theoretically any hacker with a minimum of brain could alter a device driver and remove the "light on" function

this

It's controlled by software, you don't have to physically do anything
there's a black mirror episode where this teenage boy's webcam gets hacked as a result of his computer getting a virus, and then the footage captured is used to blackmail the individual into doing various tasks ; really disturbing but quality show
Reply 34
Original post by LeTamoul
No it’s very simple for any Linux user to make Trojan or Backdoor and send it to you. When the Backdoor start working on your device, the hacker can do a lot of thing such as taking screenshot and access your Webcam. One important thing you should know about all hardware is that they are linked to software and drivers for interaction with and by the rest of your system. Theoretically any hacker with a minimum of brain could alter a device driver and remove the "light on" function and then find a sneaky way of distributing.


And how do you verify if someone actually accessed your webcam?
Original post by LeTamoul
No it’s very simple for any Linux user to make Trojan or Backdoor and send it to you. When the Backdoor start working on your device, the hacker can do a lot of thing such as taking screenshot and access your Webcam. One important thing you should know about all hardware is that they are linked to software and drivers for interaction with and by the rest of your system. Theoretically any hacker with a minimum of brain could alter a device driver and remove the "light on" function and then find a sneaky way of distributing.


Any computer designer with a minimum of brain could design an LED and a camera on the same circuit such that software couldn't prevent the LED from turning on if the camera was powered. And I don't see why they wouldn't do that.
Reply 36
Original post by EC
But how??? My webcam lights up when being used so I'd notice if it started going shiny blue on its own.


Believe me, you don't need the slightest bit of intelligence to pull this off. I'm confident that you could type into Youtube "How to hack into a webcam" and a tutorial would come up explaining all there is to know.

I take Computer-Science, so I know a bit about this. A 'Hacker' or a 'Script kiddie' will purchase a RAT (Remote Administration Tool). Having access to a RAT means you can build a virus/stub, this is what gives 'hackers' remote administration over your computer. All they need to do is send you the virus, you download it and then they can do anything they want with your computer.

Note:

Just because you don't see your blue light on, doesn't mean they are not watching you. Most RATs can turn on your webcam but prevent the light from showing.

Anti-Virus will not help you, since there are things called Crypters. Crypters allow viruses to go undetected.

Hackers can bind normal files to viruses. Example, say you wanted to download a song. You could download the song and be downloading a virus in the background without knowing. So, when the download is finished you will have your song but wouldn't know you also just downloaded a virus...

Original post by Kravence
this

It's controlled by software, you don't have to physically do anything


You could compile support for it out of the kernel I think. Never really bothered since i've not had much interest in web cams before.
Reply 38
Original post by Carthaginian
They can easily edit registries, etc.
I once ratted someone and installed spyware on their PC, good ol' days.


Oh my god, intimacy is completely disappearing.
Original post by Naruke
Believe me, you don't need the slightest bit of intelligence to pull this off. I'm confident that you could type into Youtube "How to hack into a webcam" and a tutorial would come up explaining all there is to know.

I take Computer-Science, so I know a bit about this. A 'Hacker' or a 'Script kiddie' will purchase a RAT (Remote Administration Tool). Having access to a RAT means you can build a virus/stub, this is what gives 'hackers' remote administration over your computer. All they need to do is send you the virus, you download it and then they can do anything they want with your computer.

Note:

Just because you don't see your blue light on, doesn't mean they are not watching you. Most RATs can turn on your webcam but prevent the light from showing.

Anti-Virus will not help you, since there are things called Crypters. Crypters allow viruses to go undetected.

Hackers can bind normal files to viruses. Example, say you wanted to download a song. You could download the song and be downloading a virus in the background without knowing. So, when the download is finished you will have your song but wouldn't know you also just downloaded a virus...




This makes me laugh. If it's literally this easy to '''''hack''''' then it would be easy to plug the flaws in software. Most internet security packages will scan files before you open them so even if you convinced a random stranger just download something, it's not like it's gonna be plain sailing. This is the whole point in hacking, there is no systematic way of doing it, it relies on understanding of the logic behind programs.
(edited 7 years ago)

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