Your webcam sounds like a relatively harmless thing, right? All it does is help you participate in all those Zoom calls, while also keeping you connected to your loved ones during the past couple of years. But that tiny little lens at the top of your laptop screen or desktop monitor is far from harmless-more so if a hacker has taken control of it.
Webcam hacking is real, and it's a serious cybersecurity and privacy problem. But you do not have to be in trouble for using something so important. Here are the tell-tale signs that indicate whether your camera has been hacked.
Camera Indicator Is On At The Weirdest Times
According to NordVPN, this is one of the most obvious signs that a hacker has breached your camera. If the indicator light is on even if you're not using the camera-or if it is blinking abnormally-this could be a sign.
There are times, however, when weird indicator light issues aren't clear indications of a hack. That's because some browser extension or even another program running your computer could be using the camera, and you just don't know about it. This could be a browser extension or a background application.
Make sure that you remember installing all of the browser extensions you have. Also, ensure that any program that can access the camera is turned off when you're not using your computer (i.e. Zoom). Turn these off one by one and see whether the indicator light goes back to normal. If it doesn't, then that's an obvious sign that your webcam is hacked.
Security Settings Get Changed Without Your Input
DigitalTrends says that any hacker who gains control of your camera can also access other important settings on your computer. This allows them to easily control the camera itself, as well as send or receive files.
At times, some antivirus software will have webcam intrusion protections. Try to see if those protections have been altered in any way without you tinkering with them. Enable anything that looks suspiciously disabled, and watch out for camera notification settings being turned off under your nose.
You can also poke around in your computer's Security settings to see if any measures like firewalls have been turned off. By default, all important security toggles will be turned on. Take note of whenever these settings get changed without prior notice.
Check If Your Webcam Process Is Running In The Background
This goes for Windows users. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to open Task Manager and look at everything running under Processes. If you don't see your camera in there, then you're good. But if you do, don't panic just yet: maybe the app is set to turn on by default whenever you turn your PC on.
Go to the camera app you might have installed and disable any "Start with Windows" option or anything similar you might find. Then restart your PC. It should be deactivated after the reboot as long as you disabled the "Start with Windows" setting. If it doesn't, then maybe you should uninstall the app.
Unexpected Folders Containing Images Or Videos Show Up
Any hacker who gains access to a victim's webcam will need to store the data somewhere. The easiest place to do so would be your own computer (unless, of course, if the hacker planned for such an eventuality and saves it offsite).
As such, check your drives for any folder that contains images and videos you KNOW you didn't save. But be warned: the files can have random names and might be stored in random folders, which means they'll be lost under a mountain of unorganized data on your computer. So be very vigilant when looking for these.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
