NSA employee shows how any MacBook’s webcam and microphone can be hacked
By Prempal Singh
Apple’s MacBook – considered to be one of the safest laptops out there – is not totally hack proof, a previous NSA employee has exposed. Patrick Wardle, an NSA staffer has exhibited how any webcam or microphone of a Mac pc device can be used over.
Wardle, who is currently working on the R&D for security intellect firm Synack, created an OS X malware test to show how cyber-terrorist can monitor your Mac pc and anytime an online video session is on, the malware records the music and video automatically.
The researcher says any smartly-designed spy software could change on and capture these conversations and users will not get the smallest hint about it.
Even though Mac computers come with a green LED light to alert you whenever your webcam is on, during the past, researchers have found ways to disable the LED light when turning on the webcam.
Wardle talk about the vulnerability on Thursday night (6 October) during the Virus Bulletin conference in Denver.
To prevent this type of a crack, Wardle says he a new tool called OverSight which monitors your webcam and microphone activities and then notifies you if a malicious secondary software is attempting to access the give food to. One can then choose to either allow or block access.
Sometime back again Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had posted an image shows that he covers his webcam with a recording prompting many to issue whether webcams are in reality a safe way to communicate out there.
Wardle says, since one can’t keep their webcams covered and can need to put it to use eventually, taking such precautions is the only way to remain safe.
Source: ibtimes.co.uk