Thursday, May 20, 2004
A Voice From The Beyond
Imagine that you are sitting there, chatting away with friends or family members over the internet. Perhaps you have your webcam running.
You are in the middle of replying to an Instant Message, you look up and suddenly see words on that screen that you never wrote. You watch files being opened and moved around. Your screen goes dark, comes back up and someone types across your screen, “I love that top you have on. You are hot, take it off.”
Your computer has been seized by a hacker but what’s worse is that the hacker can also see you on your webcam.
This happened to a family in Houston
It certainly is extremely unsettling to know that someone can come in, take over your hard drive and start snooping around in your files. Not only is it freakish to watch things happen on your system when you’re not touching a thing but it’s also a major violation of privacy; ten times worse with the webcam spying.
Now, I have a webcam and I guess there is something to be said about a small paranoia when it comes to the thing. The first couple of times I had it on and was talking to friends, it took me a great amount of time to get used to the idea that people were looking at me, in the privacy of my own home while they were somewhere else.
It just plain felt weird.
After awhile I was able to get pretty used to it and have also gotten over my “I feel like a spy or voyeur” when my friends turn theirs on but I always got this feeling after I had shut it down for the evening. It was a feeling akin to leaving the drapes or blinds open at night time. I would turn it off and then stare at it, it’s deep, black eye staring back, unblinking and I would question whether or not it was really turned off. Sure the green light shows no more but is it really off or can someone still see me? Again, having the thing made me feel weird as it was but thankfully, mine has a “screen” that can be pulled down over the eye and that screen is down the entire time I’m not using my camera.
In the story above, the family states they have absolutely no idea how long that hacker had been spying on them via their webcam. Yah. So laugh at my small paranoia about the cam but it looks like it was rational thinking after all.
Now. I have said this countless times, and I mean countless times over the years and you will even find me saying it somewhere in my archives. I will, however, say it again because apparently people simply do not listen:
IF YOU EVER GET AN EMAIL FROM SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW OR IF YOU AREN’T SURE ABOUT THE ATTACHMENT, DO NOT OPEN IT! I REPEAT, DO NOT OPEN ANY EMAIL FROM SOMEONE YOU DO NOT KNOW! DO NOT OPEN ANY ATTACHMENTS FROM UNKNOWN SOURCES!
I will continue to say this until it is beaten into people’s minds. As I have also said, repeatedly over time, I take this a step further. If someone sends me an email with an attachment and I KNOW them, I either delete it immediately, (depending on the subject line: If it says, “Fwd” it’s in the trash), or I email them and ask them if they sent me something with an attachment. I will not open it until I get confirmation that they did indeed send it to me.
That is the first step into protecting yourself against virus and potential hacker attacks who will dig through your files and spy on you through your webcam. You also need to get yourself a good firewall installed.
And last but not least, according to the experts, unless you have a screen to cover the eye of the camera, unplug that camera when it is not in use.
I do have one question though and maybe those who are more tech savvy can answer this because as I read the above article, I couldn’t shake this question.
Couldn’t the girl have just shut her computer down during that particular hacker attack? Granted, she wouldn’t have shut it down properly as she lost the controls but most computers have an on/off switch do they not and though it may be bad for the computer, I think the alternative is worse.
Anyway people, please, in all seriousness, PLEASE, please, please stop opening emails and attachments if you don’t know who sent it. You very well could open up a virus that spreads across your system and not only will it do like most, attach to your address book and spit out virus laden emails to everyone you know, you could end up having the Secret Service over to your place one day and ripping apart your computer.
The whole thing is freaky so stop it.
