Compliance Management, Privacy

FBI director uses tape over his webcams, says you should too

Earlier this year, a photo of Mark Zuckerberg's desk revealed the Facebook CEO has tape over his webcam prompted mixed reactions ranging from accusations of paranoia to reasonable security practices that should be more widely adapted, but recent comments and actions from FBI director James Comey suggest the latter reaction is true.

“There's some sensible things you should be doing, and that's one of them,” Comey said during a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies while defending his use of a piece of tape to cover his personal laptop's webcam, according to The Hill.

He went on to say that if you were to go into any government office, there are lids covering all of the little cameras that sit atop of the monitors.

Comey went on to liken the action to locking one's doors at night and setting an alarm. 

He went on to say that it's not such a crazy idea for the FBI director to care about personal security and that others should too.

A recent ESET report said that webcams built into more and more connected devices create more avenues for cyber criminals to exploit vulnerabilities as cyber criminals target webcams and routers.

Researchers also recommended in the report that users should place tape in front of their cameras and change the default passwords on routers, according to a Sept. 15 blog post. 

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