Turn your laptop into a NSA spying machine | Hacker News Reader

Turn your laptop into a NSA spying machine

stickonspy.com

31 pointssirbrad29 comments

WTF, why is this crap on HN homepage? A front camera sticker? Seriously guys.

All you need to be on the front page these days is to mention the NSA or PRISM.

Am I the only one who doesn't have a microphone or webcam in my laptop these days (6 year old Lenovo T61)? It didn't come with a webcam and I unplugged the mic.

I can't stand the thought of them pointing at me.

Appropriate user name is appropriate.

I've got a bit of electrical tape over the spycam on my own laptop. Mics I haven't disabled, though I suspect I should...

Lol,... Me too.

My laptop has a sliding piece of plastic that covers the webcam http://i.imgur.com/zRnNOEQ.jpg

On my desktop PC, I plug in the webcam when I need to use it for Skype, and unplug it when it's not in use. Nothing can be used remotely when it's not plugged in!

Buy one of those stickers and nobody will ever have to know!

I have a light next to my webcam that turns on when it's active. Is it possible the webcam can be activated without that light turning on?

Ostensibly yes, though I suppose it depends on the make/model of the laptop and webcam. Someone with pretty solid reversing skills would need to figure it out for that specific laptop or line or laptops.

I've read that it can be possible on some makes and models although most of them employ a system where when the camera is active then electricity passes to it, it passes through the LED first so to even reach the camera the LED has to be illuminated therefore making it not possible.

Yes, of course!

Perhaps tangential, but is there any way to be certain whether the webcam light can be controlled by software?

I often wonder if my MBP camera is necessarily off just because the ominous little green light isn't shining.

That would be hardware-specific, but probably _always_ independently controllable. It's not like the IC manufacturer is going to link the CCD to an LED.

Why not? It's easy. Turn the LED on when there's current on the CCD's power input.

Certainly not arguing that it's difficult. It's extremely trivial.

It just makes no business sense for the camera manufacturer. The CCD is a generic chip that spews clocked image data over some serial connection. Keep it simple and generic, and ship to any business who wants it.

You can have a camera controller IC/ASIC/FPGA/µcontroller one step up from the CCD that manages the CCD and LEDs. That would have either firmware or hardware support for LEDs, but you'd still imagine that it would be configurable for cases where there is no LED installed.

It's absolutely possible, and I don't know all the options out there, but I can't imagine a manufacturer shipping an off-the-shelf IC that _always_ ties an LED to CCD operation.

Sometimes companies try to act in their customer's best interest. Or at least in such a way that they don't risk customers turning away. I noticed this story on HN quite recently: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241003

Perhaps not as often as one might wish.

I don't think so. It seems like software controls whether that little green light is on. Unless the green light is on whenever the webcam is powered.

Deleted comment

Hardware-based can mean two things.

    1. The CCD IC controls the LED
    2. A intermediate IC has firmware that controls the CCD and LED

It is safe to assume that the LED is always controlled either by an OS driver, or by an intermediate firmware. I doubt it would ever be controlled by the 'final' camera IC.

This means that, for Macbooks, running the CCD without the LED is _very difficult_, but, if the camera supports firmware upgrades, it is possible. And there could be undocumented commands to enable video without the LED.

If you're afraid of script-kiddies watching you read Reddit, you can probably trust the LED. If you're afraid the NSA has identified you as a special target, you probably cannot.

Engineering common sense is a good way to be certain.

All Thinkpads have a "no webcam" option and all W and T (and X?) series come with a free hardware kill switch for your microphone.

I would be more useful if someone made a sticker of some sort that allows you to cover the camera when you don't need it, and pull off easily when you do. Maybe a little magnet would do the trick.

You want this: http://www.c-slide.com/

This one is cheaper http://www.clker.com/cliparts/9/2/z/w/J/W/post-it-note.svg

Being on HN I expected this to be something about storing and analysing everything the wifi picks up or something along that line. This is pretty disappointing with that expectation.

I notice the payment form is US-centric (it demands a state, I told it n/a). Really quite fitting, given that the NSA isn't supposed to spy on Americans.

This would have to be a removable sticker in order to be a serious solution.

This is fabulous.

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