Stop Webcam Hijackers

Webcams may give you a window on the world, but they also offer criminals a view into your private life. Here’s what you can do to stop yours being hijacked.

The picture of tape covering the web cam on what’s believed to be Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s computer sparked lots of debate about the safety of personal webcams.
You may not use the webcam built into the top edge of your laptop screen, but how do you know someone else isn’t secretly using it to spy on you?

It may sound far-fetched, but in 2014 a Russian website carrying video captured illegally from 500 UK webcams was exposed, while in 2015, a British hacker was convicted of spending up to 12 hours a day spying on people by hacking their webcams.
Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to make sure your webcam can’t be hacked in this way.