To think covering your work laptop camera is just paranoia?

Hate being on camera. I’d cover mine too (if I had one 😁)

Do you feel big and important being condescending to autistic people because factual answer bother you?

It's not jargon. It's abbreviations of how data is transmitted.

I was answering a question as simply as possible.

This is the thing though- hacking into your computer to capture data that sits within it, like private documents, is one thing.

Hacking into the camera is a different thing and won’t be anything like the best way to access documents. What do you think they’re going to do, sit there watching until someone holds up a sensitive document when they could just hack the drive?

and as others have said your work IT (who would be responsible for this anyway) would have to be lax to allow this to happen.

It wasn't during a meeting. The laptop just happened to be in the room with them - outside of work hours!

I can safely say the risk of me ever being caught masturbating during a work meeting is a big fat 0%

I suppose that’s where AI comes in train it to recognise compromising material and it can filter through millions of pieces of data much more effectively.

I cover mines too. I have a friend who is an IT genius and he tells me most people would be horrified if they knew how easy it is to hack in to most bits of kit. My work laptop I think is pretty secure and everything is run through secure servers etc. and no personal use. He recommended you cover cameras that aren’t in use so my personal laptop has a stick plaster over the lens.

I thought the same op, and always assumed it was conspiracy theorists or men who had believed the “I’ve got wanking photos of you” emails.
Until I was at a science fair with dd and the government cyber security team were there promoting career opportunities. They were giving out little laptop covers for free and saying how important it is to cover them.

Do IT people think it makes them look extra clever by using jargon acronyms on a forum for everyone, because it doesn't?

Thanks. I have no idea what that means. I’ll take your word for it.

But if the end result is that a hacker gains access to a camera rather than a computer it would seem pretty pointless. You’d have to hack an awful lot of cameras for a very long time to get anything compromising. Millions of hours of people drinking tea, phoning Dave in accounts, typing memos or using Excel is not going to be much use.

That people are more likely to want to hack Mark Zuckerberg's laptop camera than Laura from HR's.

Yes but in your analogy locking the front door is better than not locking it as it adds an extra hurdle for a burglar/hacker to overcome. Although I can't work out how anyone would see you once the camera was covered, what's the equivalent of the back door in your scenario?

UDP is the simplest answer.

Firewalls and malware/antiviral software will prevent/catch most unauthorised installations providing they are being used.

If you're using video to WFH chances are the firewall is allowing UDP rather than forcing use of TCP, some will of course and employees will complain about video delay or glitches.

Mine's covered. It just took a few seconds to do with a post-it. I have a work laptop and hybrid working. I'm not particularly tech-savvy. We have an extremely nosy micro-manager who is (and who I know has also tried to see me on social media). It's just in case. I also wfh in face packs and oil my hair so I would prefer that no-one sees that if I were to accidentally turn on the camera!

I never used to cover mine but then one day I took a shower when wfh and someone called me on teams. I answered not realising they’d requested a video call and so I was stood there with just a towel wrapped round me, getting into a panic trying to switch the camera off! So yes, now it’s covered!

Exactly the same happened to me. It was quite a shock to see my photo on the screen. I looked so grim. We took it to a computer clinic and had it fixed/cleaned and better security installed. Ever since then I've had brown parcel tape over the camera. Lesson learnt.

That is a bit hard to believe.

How is it easier to hack a camera than install a key logger or some other malware?

Always keep shutter on camera closed and volume on laptop muted! Unless on a call of course. Hackers can access your laptop/wifi enabled devices

I have an Amazon Alexa show (I think that’s what it’s called) which has the screen so you a steam tv. That has a camera for video calling, the camera has a shutter which I always have closed when not in use. Not sure why feels weird with it open

Ex partner/nosy gossip/micro manager working in the same organisation... can people really not see why they might want to take a simple, easy to do, privacy measure.

That is before external hacking (more likely if you connect private equipment to a work network, or security on work equipment is lax).

But nowadays people have all sorts of devices at home with cameras that would be easier for random strangers to hack (or more likely people who work(ed) for the equipment manufacturers and installers to use)

Just looking round my living room, there is a gaming system, 3 phones, 2 tablets, a ring doorbell, cctv camera, interactive entertainment system, 2 laptops and desktop computer which all have camera, microphone and at minimum WiFi access. I have my health watch on, the dog has a tracker, my keys have a tracker... room has smart lighting, wifi printer in the corner, even the bloomin washing machine has WiFi.
The boat has sailed on having this stuff in the home. Just need to make sure it is secured.

@daisychain01

Cameras only get hacked if the general security wrapper around the machine they're operating is inadequate.

Humans are inadequate security. BYOD popularity for remote working increases security risks.

lol, I cover mine because I WFH and always look a mess, I daren’t risk it coming on accidentally 😂 however I don’t have many meetings and those I do we all have our cameras off.

I watch my iPad in the bath and put blue tack over the camera.

I also use the inbuilt shutter on the laptop at work.

Remote access to a camera should be a concern enough to just do something that takes a second to disable anything being viewed

Without the why, your device's camera and microphone are the easiest things for a hacker to take over. Even if you think there is nothing to gain from someone recording you, while you are unaware, it's a simple measure to take to prevent it. You can mute or disable your mic when you're not using it too.

Think about the number of calls you might make that require data protection compliance as to why such camfecting would be valuable.

I suspect the camera covering is just one of those things that people can easily do and that gives a false sense of control, rather than provide any genuinely needed protection.

100%. It's like someone thinking their house is really secure because their front door is locked but meanwhile their back door is on the latch.

Cameras only get hacked if the general security wrapper around the machine they're operating is inadequate.

there's unfortunately a lot of conflation and ignorance about IT security as per some of the comments on here. All it does is perpetuate misinformation.

Key message - if anything suspicious happens to your work computer you have a duty to report it to your IT dept. It's probably in your IT policy.