How your Webcam may be spying on You

Remember that song from 1984, "Somebody's watching me?" It was a great foreshadowing of things to come: These days, people really CAN watch you while you go about your business at home…through your computer. So if someone confides in you that "they're spying on me through my computer," don't be too quick to assume your friend went off his meds.

Webcam technology can enable a hacker to view you via your computer. The technology is called RAT: remote access Trojans. It can record keystrokes and obtain all of your files. And you'll probably not know someone's watching you. And how does a computer become a portal through which someone can spy on you? Numerous ways, including installing a "lost" thumb drive you found and clicking on links in e-mails or pop-up ads.

Just think of what all this can mean:

• Nobody will have to imagine what you look like in your underwear.
• The government may be spying on you. Your boss may be, too.
• Your face, captured via your Webcam, can be compared to a face in a crowd. Doesn't sound like a big deal unless you don't want anyone to know you were in that crowd, such as a war protest.
• Your headshot may end up on a selling list—like your phone number and home address surely already have—and these lists can get sold all over the place.
• Will you ever be truly alone when getting intimate with your partner?
• Criminals are hacking webcams and holding the footage for ransom.
• Do you want anyone to know about that secret, disgusting habit you have?
• Put a piece of masking tape over the Webcam camera.
• Equip your device with the latest antivirus, antiphishing, antispyware and a firewall.