To think covering your work laptop camera is just paranoia?

[TealDreamer]

My friend always puts sellotape over her work laptop camera when she’s not using it or in meetings. I used to think this was a bit much but I’ve just discovered my own work laptop actually has a built-in shutter for the camera - so clearly, even manufacturers acknowledge there might be a reason to cover it.

She insists it’s because “you never know who’s watching,” and while I don’t fully buy into the idea that someone is spying on us all the time, I do wonder if there’s any real risk.

AIBU to think this is just a conspiracy theory or is it actually sensible to cover your webcam when not in use? Do you do it?

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Hacking into the camera can allow them to do other things. Access your calender and contacts for example. Personal data has value.

They can also use it to alter the pathway of transmission when you are using it. Including making an unauthorised device appear legitimate on your network.

They can of course do this while you are using it too, especially if you use hotspots or unsecured public WiFi at train stations, cafes etc.

If I have a decent firewall and Internet security on my work and home laptops, why isn't that enough? If I trust the firewall etc to keep everything else on the laptop safe, why wouldn't I trust it to keep the camera safe?

Why have anyone work in cybersecurity at all if a single firewall and some software stops everything?

Why have an alarm if you lock your doors?

We don't have an alarm at home because the thieves would be pretty depressed if they bothered to break in only to find a slightly damaged 15 year old TV and an ancient playstation thing. ...and that's if they made their way past the piles of Lego and footballs ... )

Likewise I don't bother covering my camera because anyone would hacked in would just see me drinking coffee and typing furiously and I imagine would get bored eventually

Would they not need access to the computer to steal data stored on it? Surely the camera doesn’t store anything? It’s ‘dumb’, isn’t it?

OK, so if the firewall and Internet security isn't enough to protect my camera, and you're advising that I cover it up, what extra measures can/should I take to protect the rest of the stuff on my laptop please?

It's not stored data being stolen. It's transmitted data.

Ask your IT department

How are contact books and diary entries transmitted by a camera?

I work in IT (not claiming to know everything) and anyone who does will tell you - no data is safe, nothing ever gets deleted permanently and everything is hackable. Take no chances.
Both my kids laptops have camera stickers, mine has a shutter but is in my office so I rarely use the shutter.

My point was around perception of safety, that by locking your front door, you're safe, even though the back door is on the latch, so if a burglar wants to they can easily walk round the back and get in through the back door. This actually happened to me when my house got broken into when I first moved many years ago, they jimmy'd off the old insecure slidey patio door. So I thought I'd locked up and went off for the weekend without a care in the world, when actually my house was simple to break into and they got in and did untold damage.

in the example of the camera, people think they are increasing their security /privacy by taping over the camera lens, yes, the hacker can't see them but as I said upthread, if a hacker has managed to infiltrate your computer, then the camera being taped over with a bit of cello tape is the least of your problems. they'll be doing a lot more damage, just like those burglars did to my house.

back to my recommendation, if anything gives cause for concern on a work laptop, then report it asap. One hopes that professional IT is well protected, but as we always say in Cyber Security the number 1 risk to security is People!

I think to be fair to the poster, whether they wrote TCP or Transfer Control Protocol (I think it is) wasn’t going to change your understanding of the answer 😳