I See You Typing -- Slate
Spying on someone by hacking into his webcam is disturbingly easy. Why don't more people do it?
The China-based cyber-spy network known as "GhostNet" is a sophisticated group of hackers capable of logging its victims' keystrokes, stealing their documents, capturing images from their screens—and staring creepily at them through their webcams.
In a report released last month, Canadian researchers concluded that GhostNet has cracked at least 1,295 computers in 103 different countries, specifically targeting the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan activists and officials. Stealing documents and logging keystrokes—that I understand. You can get all sorts of useful information reading someone's e-mail or looking at their bank records. But peeking at them through their Web cameras? That seems creepy even by the standards of shady cyber-spying rings. It's one thing to read the Dalai Lama's IM conversations. It's another to actually watch him LOL.
Read more ....
My Comment: This is not the first time that I have read such a story. It makes you think of Big Brother, and of all the possibilities for foreign intelligence agencies to use this technology to spy and/or blackmail unsuspecting targets.
Defence Tech had a great story on this issue last year. Many of its points are still relevant today. The link is here.
As webcam technology develops and more people start to use it for communication purposes .... expect more issues of security and privacy to be publicized and reported on.
No comments:
Post a Comment