At 7:59 PM -0800 2/19/2010, Jonas Lopez wrote:
Remote webcam activation prevention or not if stolen?
In the news a school remotely activated webcam to locate lost or
stolen computers.
Yes. The school provided the MacBook to the student with the
security software pre-installed. When reported stolen, the software
can be triggered.
Electrical black tape may well prevent the picture, but not the
sound. On my G4 tower, 10.5, can I prevent remote activation of my
webcam?
Certainly - just don't install such software products.
If stolen, can I search for a serial number? Where? How would I
activate the camera? Is this serial built into the box and if I
unplug the cam how can they see my screen?
As-is, if stolen, you can do nothing except file a police and
insurance report. There are a number of products that you can
install, however, that can be used to trigger snapshots and such.
Google is your friend.
Personally, I don't recommend ANY of them. If you're worried about
your gizmos being stolen, then keep good backups, keep the critical
data encrypted, and pay for replacement-value insurance.
is all this a windose problem?
So-called "theft / recovery" products are available for both Mac and PC.
At 10:31 PM -0600 2/19/2010, Kris Tilford wrote:
No, the kid had an iBook.
No, the child had a school-issued MacBook.
The real issue is that someone at the school triggered the software
when they shouldn't have. This is always a problem; comes under the
category of "WELL DUH!", IMO... if you put a backdoor in your
computer, someone will eventually it. In this case, the culprit was
a putz at the school. But it could just have easily been an idiot at
the company that wrote the software, or a hacker.
<http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20100219_Student_claims_school_spied_on_him_via_computer_webcam.html>
- Dan.
--
- Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth.
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