Blogs and Posts

Should You Cover Your Webcam?

• By: Garry Feldman
• Date: July 2, 2016

Lots of talk this week about Mark Zuckerberg covering his webcam. When it comes to privacy the case has been made that covering your webcam is common sense, but are you wondering why? How big a threat is your webcam and microphone for that matter?

ASK THE EXPERTS

Computer security experts agree that regularly covering your laptop webcam and microphone keeps unauthorized users from accessing your live visual feeds. Maybe you don’t consider yourself a high value enough target to be concerned. Did you know vulnerabilities are documented which identify third party software bugs which hackers exploit to access your webcam and mic?

SECURE YOUR PASSWORDS

End users need to think more like security experts to avoid personal information becoming public. Certainly professionals need to protect their individual and corporate privacy. Good habits like using complex passwords, password managers and most definitely varied passwords for each site are no joke.

NOBODY IS IMMUNE

So should you get out the duct tape, or place a band-aid over your webcam? Yes. Everyone is vulnerable, from the CEO to the SEO expert in a company. Data breaches create havoc and erode confidence in you and your business. Perhaps the best answer is the old adage “better safe than sorry” which is better be stated as “better secure than sorry.”

REACH OUT TO THE EXPERTS

For a network security audit or help navigating how to best advise your employees, contact the technical experts at uscomputer.com.