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FBI can spy on you through your webcam without triggering the indicator light

fallstuff

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FBI can spy on you through your webcam without triggering the indicator light... and has had the technology for several years

  • FBI has had secret webcam spying technology 'for several years'
  • Technique activates a webcam without turning on the recording light
  • The same malware has been used illegally by 'ratting' hackers


The US government has been able to secretly spy on its citizens through their computer’s webcams for several years, it has been revealed.

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, a former assistant director of its tech division has said.

Their usage of remote administration tools (RATs) comes to light as the world's most powerful technology firms call on Barack Obama to curb government spying on internet users.

The FBI have been able to use the spyware technology for years and have put it in place in terrorism cases or the most serious criminal investigations, Marcus Thomas, former assistant director of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico, told the Washington Post.

Although the FBI reportedly uses 'ratting' sparingly, they have been rejected remotely activating video feeds on at least one occasion, in Houston, Texas, in December last year.

The FBI were investigating a suspect in a bank fraud case, but the presiding judge ruled that the risk of accidentally obtaining information of innocent people was too great.

Hacking into webcams using remote administration tools, also known as ‘ratting’, to spy on women and ‘enslave’ them by controlling their computers and secretly filming and taking pictures is not a new phenomenon but has grown in the past year.

Earlier this year, tech site Arstechnica revealed that one of the 'slave forums' had 23 million total posts, where ‘ratters’ boasted about their ‘slaves’ posting pictures, mainly of women, unaware that they were being watched.

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.

Once installed, the malware allows the FBI to take control of the computer and the webcam at any time, working similarly to the system large corporations use to update software and fix IT problems.

‘We have transitioned into a world where law enforcement is hacking into people’s computers, and we have never had public debate,’ Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union told the Post.

‘Judges are having to make up these powers as they go along.’



Read more: FBI can spy through your webcam without triggering the indicator light | Mail Online
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What's new ... ?? This is almost the same "botnet" technique used by hackers to capture and steal user data..
 
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Sometimes i wonder that useless Internet Explorer is a spyware
 
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It's old news.
When you connected to the "net" your exposed to everyone who knows how and where to look.
 
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o thank god i always turn webcam of my computer other way round :victory::chilli::yahoo:
i used to think i'm foolish doubting my webcam :partay:
 
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Sometimes i wonder that useless Internet Explorer is a spyware

Actually browsing through Internet Explorer is much safer than Chrome or Firefox ... !! :agree:

Both Chrome and Firefox supports media experience to a great extent and are not good in protecting privacy .... Google Chrome has problems in disabling JavaScript (which is widely used in web attacks).. Even it's too easy to steal a stored password from Chrome ....
 
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Very easy way of solving the problem.

Bandaid.;)


bandaid.jpg
 
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Lots of webcams used to come with closing lids. However as of late I do not see this function on many high end ones. Conspiracy?

"Chuckstar
Ars Praefectus
et Subscriptor

That's what I liked about Apple's first iSight camera (the external one), from before they started building in the functionality. It had a manually operated diaphragm shutter. Closing the shutter also operated a physical switch disconnecting the microphone. You knew off was off. I never understood why they didn't include similar functionality once they included it built-in."
 
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If FBI guys reading this, I just wanna say that, its not what you think that I was doing when you spied on me through webcam.. I was just scratching my balls thats all!!:ashamed:
 
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Always had a feeling that someone is peeping through that pin hole. However, I am not surprised at the revelations !!

That's why you should manage your online profile. Someone asked me why i regularly blackout images of myself and don't do Facebook or linked in. Here is the answer!
 
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