Camera’s and microphones are the two easiest things things to hack on a laptop. And I mean very easy. Anyone with a few months to spare and access to google can learn how to do it.

Years ago when I was in China I was getting updated on cyber security from one of our partnerships.

We were going over everything from basic hacks a 9 year old could do to more sophisticated ones that professional blackhats do. This was to ensure all of our companies assets were up to date and complaint with expectations to be working with sensitive data from our clients and customers from China.

One of the first things they showed me was how easy it is to get access a camera remotely. And over a dozen different methods of doing it.

Back at my hotel where I was staying at the time, I had a laptop on my desk by my bed which I always left on, but locked.

As well as at my home office in Canada, I had a few laptops there as well I had plugged into a backup battery power bar, so they had about 42 hours total of backup battery should power ever go out. I was using these as self cloud storage’s. So they were on as well.

Within 5 minutes of the lesson just knowing my IP address (for my Canada office) and my QQ chat account on my hotel laptop they had access to my cameras in both my hotel room, and my home office. I was able to see my rooms from the board meeting through the eyes of my camera. And this was an amateur hack, something a 12 year old could learn online. The laptops did all have anti virus.

Not only with cameras. We did microphone as well as other windows processes as well. All basic methods. They were able to push software onto the devices through vulnerabilities in the router/network and other means.

No system is safe, but there are steps you can take to prevent certain methods (especially amateur). Most people though are not aware, and probably never need to.

We did some advanced security lessons by which one of the professional consultants showed us how easily he can obtain direct access to devices, not just amateur stuff like cameras.

He was able to get full remote access to my home office laptops in under 4 minutes of his demonstration. Which then he had full mouse/keyboard and screen share on. He was able to access emails, web browser, and over a dozen external harddrives and all contents connected to my network. Prior to that meeting I wasn’t even aware that was possible.

We also did a safety test on my VPS (virtual private server) that I had hosted with Hostmonster and Godaddy at the time. This was a few years ago. I got permission to test our VPS’s security. The consultant wouldn’t do it without permission, which we got from a live chat agent.

Within 4 minutes again he had access to our root VPS server. He bypassed the hosting servers basic security that was loaded by default on our virtual server. He was able to show me the root files of all of my CPANEL accounts that hosted our websites on Magento and WordPress and we were able to make live changes to my sites. To that, I was not happy. I was expecting a lot more security from those hosting companies, not with them anymore though.

And this all done by an experienced consultant who works in the security industry to prevent malicious intent. Not a blackhat with evil intentions.

This was a two day consult. About 11 hours total. So we covered a lot of what can happen in the world. It was then and there I realized the need for certain companies, and high profile people to utilize cyber security firms.

Since then I always cover my mic and camera with tape, as well as make adjustments to device settings and network advanced settings to reduce amateur hacks.

But if an experienced blackhat wants in, they’ll get in.