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3/10/2017 3 Comments the dangers of webcams (blog #7)Today, laptops and computer monitors have built in webcams. Webcams are convenient for online face to face communication with our families and friends, which Skype is our resource that we rely on for online communication. It is common now that companies are using webcams to communicate with employees and employers by conducting job interviews and an online conference. Even though, people have been using webcams for more over a decade, now it has been revolutionized that it is required to own a webcam since companies, schools, and families from long distance tend to communicate by using a webcam. What I am curious about is that when I go to school, I see people using their laptops and I see a small paper or sticker covering their webcam. When I was in community college, I saw the same thing from other students and now it has become a common thing to do. I heard that the reason for covering their webcam is that other people might access their webcam and begin watching them. To be more specific, people are concerned that hackers, FBI, and the U.S. Government are constantly getting access to webcams to spy on someone in front of their webcam. Mostly everyone that owns a computer with a built-in webcam are concerned about their privacy and are fearful about someone watching them, so in order to protect their privacy, they cover their webcams. There has been reports from victims that there were occasions that they have been stalked from their webcam. Victims of webcam hacks have seen images and videos of themselves regularly in different states of undress or in compromising situations – uploaded to websites. On top of this, there have been multiple instances of hackers using these unlawful techniques to spy on people they know. Hackers tend to have many techniques on how to hack someone’s webcam. The most common malware that hackers rely on is Remote Access Trojan (RAT). RAT is a malware program that includes a back door for administrative control over the target computer. RATs are usually downloaded invisibly with a user-requested program such as a game or sent as an email attachment. This gives the opportunity for hackers to hide in the application and wait for the chance to begin hacking the webcams. As for the FBI, the FBI has long been able to activate a computer’s camera without triggering the ‘recording light’ to let the owner know the webcam is on. According to an article from Daily Mail, “The FBI team use the same technique as ratters, by infecting the computer with a malicious software – ‘malware – through phishing”. By sending an email with a link, which could be to a website, an image or a video, the user is tricked into downloading a small piece of software onto their machine. It is shocking that even the FBI has the nerve to spy on people and breaking their privacy rights. After researching about who is hacking into webcams to spy on users, I can say that I don’t blame people that cover their webcams to avoid from being spied on also this is a concern about our privacy. The cyberworld is a mysterious place that there is not knowing what people are doing, so you have to be prepared for the unexpected.
3 Comments
Araceli Gopar
3/10/2017 11:21:39 pm
Hello Fernando,
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Juan Reyes - Team 8
4/5/2017 01:43:42 pm
Fernando,
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Darren Chan
5/3/2017 09:07:05 pm
I like where you are headed. This topic is something that didn't come to my mind until recent. Majority of the computers we use have cams on them and it is interesting and kinda creepy to know that someone is watching you on the other side while you are typing up an essay or facetiming with someone else.
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Fernando MadrigalHello, my name is Fernando Madrigal and I am a Junior at CSUMB. My major is Computer Science with my concentration in Network and Security. I recently transferred from Hartnell Community College last fall. Archives
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