The users of Apple computers are well aware of the fact that the camera on their computer lights up a Green LED light adjacent to the camera indicating to the user that the camera is being used. So according to these users, if the LED is off, the camera isn’t being used, which makes them feel safe thinking that their Apple computer is not being used in any way to spy on them.
Now do read this article to learn otherwise!
There has been a criminal case against a man who was able to hack the laptop of one of his classmates to make use of her laptop’s camera for taking nude pictures of her without her knowledge. Luckily, the issue got resolved before he could use those images to extort her, says a report by The Washington post.
This hack is being used legally by the FBI to perform covert surveillance in several criminal investigations, and illegally as mentioned in the case above.
According to general knowledge, there is not a single way to trigger the warning light off while controlling a computer’s camera remotely (which has been a concern to the common-folk’s privacy today), but new evidence has turned up that states otherwise.
As told by the Former Assistant Direction of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico, Marcus Thomas to the Washington Post, the FBI has been successfully using cameras on various computers by activating them covertly without triggering the warning LED light on for several years now.
The Apple’s webcam has been examined by two Johns Hopkins students, who have proved that the LED warning light can be disabled and that by modifying the Mac OSX’s kernel, an evil-intentioned user can be kept from taking control of this light. Though the weakness they brought to light is not present in systems built post 2008, but most probably there are several hacks out there which can perform this task on newer machines. The hacking software sidesteps a hardware interlock that is used by the camera to switch on the LED every time it is used says the study.
For this case, it is unsure which hack-ware was used by the suspect, but this is for the first time on a public confirmation that such vulnerability exists in the Apple Computer’s camera.
After the case has been brought to light, some people have started putting a small piece of tape across their camera, apart from following the standard security measures like not downloading strange applications from the internet.
