1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,400 It doesn't take much these days to make you feel like you're living in Orwell's 1984. 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:09,040 Our smart speakers are listening to us, Facebook isn't being very careful with our data, 3 00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:13,200 and what about those little cameras on all of our computers and phones? 4 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:19,520 Are they spying on us without us even knowing it? Well, it might not be something that you think of regularly, 5 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:24,800 but there definitely have been instances of webcam hacking where people were spied on 6 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:31,200 in compromising situations, and as you may have guessed, it's often not easy to tell if this is 7 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:36,560 happening to you. So to find out more, we reached out to Troy Hunt, famous for creating the website 8 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,160 Have I Been Poned, and we'd like to thank him for his contributions to this video. 9 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:46,000 So, there are a few tricks that you can use to see if your webcam has been activated without 10 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,280 your consent. A pretty obvious tell is if that light that's attached to the webcam turns on 11 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:56,800 unexpectedly. Though you probably don't need us to tell you that the wrinkle in that whole plan 12 00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:01,280 is that the absence of a light doesn't necessarily mean that no one is watching. 13 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:07,120 You see, while some webcams have a light that is hardwired into the circuitry and that will 14 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:10,720 always turn on if there's a signal being sent through the camera itself, 15 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:16,000 many others have a light that is in fact software-driven, meaning that a skilled hacker could 16 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:22,160 turn the light on and off at will. And making matters worse, it's very difficult to figure out 17 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:27,760 which kind of light your webcam has. However, not every trick that hackers use to spy on you is 18 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:33,040 super elegant, so do pay attention if the light does come on unexpectedly when you open your 19 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:38,960 web browser or launch an unrelated program. The culprit might be a compromised browser extension 20 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:44,560 or application that you may be able to simply remove easily. Other, less well-designed pieces of 21 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:50,480 malware can leave traces on your PC. For example, some of them will leave copies of recorded video 22 00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:55,280 somewhere on your hard drive, often in the default folder that recordings are saved to, 23 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:59,600 so be sure to check for videos that you don't remember recording if you think someone might 24 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:05,040 be watching you. There is some good news, though. It's actually becoming harder and harder to 25 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:10,160 accidentally get infected by malware that will spy on you through your webcam. Back when applets 26 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:15,680 like Java and Flash were far more common in browsers, it was easier to fall victim to malware 27 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:20,080 of this type, including spyware that could potentially take over your webcam. And it could 28 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:26,320 happen simply by visiting an infected website. These days, because of these security concerns, 29 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:32,080 Java and Flash are far less common. Plus, operating systems are automatically patched quite 30 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:38,160 frequently. And the more walled-garden nature of mobile operating systems makes it even more 31 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:43,600 difficult to pick up malware passively on devices like those. Instead, social engineering 32 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:48,640 reliant attacks that rely on tricking the user into revealing information on their own, 33 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:54,960 like phishing, or remote access trojans are more common ways to have your webcam compromised. 34 00:02:54,960 --> 00:03:00,080 Remote access trojans, which allow a bad actor to control a user's computer over the internet, 35 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:04,400 are quite common in tech support scams, which you can actually learn more about right here. 36 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:10,640 Additionally, hackers that focus on getting into webcams tend to do it in a more target-specific 37 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:15,440 manner, which makes sense if you think about it. Cyber criminals who are out to steal financial 38 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:21,200 information often try to cast a very wide net and get the account information of as many victims 39 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:30,640 as possible. But webcam spying is often motivated by a perpetrator's desire to surveil a particular 40 00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:36,800 target, maybe a business rival, or a former lover, or a celebrity who they think they might 41 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:41,920 be able to blackmail. That means that you could fall victim to a targeted phishing attack, 42 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:46,400 or even have surveillance software installed on your machine when you aren't looking. 43 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:51,760 Now, that isn't to say that there haven't been instances of hackers attempting to spy on people 44 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:57,600 at random just to satisfy some voyeuristic tendency, or even sell the footage on online 45 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:03,200 black markets. But the bottom line is, just be careful about what kind of enemies you make, 46 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:08,240 or if you think that people are after you, all it takes is a small piece of cardboard over your 47 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:13,120 webcam, and no one will be able to look through it. I guess that really is the bottom line of this 48 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:17,440 one, isn't it? So thanks for watching guys, like, dislike, check out our other videos, 49 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:23,680 leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future Fast as Possible, and don't forget to subscribe.