Is it possible for someone to hack into your webcam?

Oh my god, intimacy is completely disappearing.

Hate to break it to you but gone ages ago. Just avoid dodgy websites and you should be alright though, script kiddies aren't very smart, they just used already made tools.

Just curious. Could someone potentially hack into your laptop's webcam and then spy on you/observe you through it from their computer?
So I could be being watched right now as I type this?

Saying it's easy to hack is like saying it's easy to day trade, it sure is if you can outsmart most people including experts.

A Trojan hack can easily bypass it and turn off the light so you won't know

Not if you're careful. It's mainly done through Trojan horses, so if you're aware of it and are good with computers you should be fine, specially if you're on a Linux OS.

One benefit of Linux based OS is packages are often audited and they're on an official website as such, you're warned if you download software from a third party which doesn't have a trusted key. The packages can obviously be compromised, but it's less easier since they're open to public scrutiny.

AV software is usually horribly bulky, slow and insecure. You can compromise the AV itself!

I mean I didn't think it was that easy to steal information. People have their entire life on their computer. Lol..

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.

And how do you verify if someone actually accessed your webcam?

No it's not, it's completely suitable for the uses of most people and whilst I'm sure it could be compromised by huge expenditure of resources, you would have to have pretty damn sexy nudes to justify the level of resources required to break in. The media should stop using words like ''hack'' and use more honest language such as ''figured out their password'', ''set up an open wi-fi network in a public place which some idiot accessed'' or ''phoned up some old lady and told her you're from Microsoft'' because that more accurately describes what happens in most cases. It's pretty much always due to sheer stupidity or someone gaining inappropriate access to a system due to espionage or malpractice rather than a shifty computer genius in a bunker in Siberia.

Nope, in modern laptops and webcams, the light isn't powered by software, so it's not possible. If power is delivered to the camera, power is also automatically delivered to the light. You can't modify that without actually opening up the laptop or camera and messing around with the wiring.

The only thing you could do to see whether your computer has been hacked is to check corrupted files and activity logs. This will give you clues about an eventual intrusion, from the type of intrusion you will be able to know whether the hacker had access to the camera or not , but that's all you can do. If you are that scared about access to your webcam, tape a piece of paper on the lens and remove only when you are ready to use it(that's what I do).

There's some right psychos online tbh

I remember reading some guy hacked into a baby monitor and started swearing at it and woke the parents up

You want to experiment jk

Do you understand how internet security packages work?

They scan files for malicious code. A unencrypted virus will easily get picked up because the code used is in a blacklisted database. However, a virus which has been encrypted, meaning the code used for the virus has been encrypted using a sophisticated algorithm. Most viruses that have been encrypted stay FUD (Fully undetectable) for about a week.

Don't believe me, see for yourself https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=darkcomet+trolling