Why do some people cover laptop cameras with tape? Is it just paranoia?

It’s not paranoia, and I will demonstrate to you why leaving the camera exposed is quite dangerous.

So, for the purpose experiment, I set a small lab.

Laptop (Victim#1).


Imagine that you enjoyed your evening surfing the internet…

Imitate a person, I left this sticker on the wall in the front laptop, with a creepy message ICU.

Meanwhile, some malicious actor is searching for vulnerabilities:

Attacker#1 screen

In this particular case, the machine is vulnerable to MS17–10 exploit, called “EternalBlue” and it was developed by the U.S. National Security Agency and leaked online in 2017.

Now, malicious actor loads exploit, include a payload, sets parameter and start the attack.

Couple minutes later he gains access to your computer:

As you can see, an attacker can hear you, see you and watch you in a live stream.

And that’s is exactly why some people cover their laptop cameras with tape, and why it’s not just paranoia.

It takes much time to cover your camera with a tape, but it might save your privacy, finances and maybe even life.