5 ways to check if your webcam is spying on you

Webcams are a great tool for recording videos or communicating with family, friends and colleagues through apps like FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, Zoom or Slack. However, hackers can turn them against you by turning them into spies. This is not a common occurrence, but it happens. This is called camfecting, and it happens when someone remotely accesses your webcam without your knowledge.

They can achieve this in several ways, including using phishing or exploiting an outdated router or weak Wi-Fi password to gain access to devices on your network. Then, they install remote access tools to download spyware and directly access the camera, in addition to other nefarious activities like stealing your sensitive information and launching cyberattacks. Fortunately, you can check. The main signs to look for include the webcam indicator light suddenly turning on, camera movement, strange applications accessing the camera, strange recordings to disk, performance issues, and network irregularities.

Once you confirm that something is accessing the camera without your permission, the problem can easily be resolved without resorting to drastic measures. After checking, be sure to run a full system scan with a trusted antivirus and enable real-time protection, even if you are using a Mac. Also be sure to strengthen your passwords, update your router, and change the default password on your network devices.

Modern webcams have a white, green, or orange light that indicates the webcam is in use. If it’s activated without you starting a video recording or calling app, it’s worth investigating. Additionally, since hackers can bypass this indicator, another thing that can alert you that your webcam is spying on you is if you have an external motorized unit that zooms, pans, and tilts, and you notice movement that you didn’t initiate. This could indicate that someone is controlling him. You might also notice issues while using the camera, such as screen tearing, lag, or blank screen.

When you notice any of these signs, slide the privacy shutter to block visual access while you investigate. Not all webcams have this feature, so an effective alternative would be to cover it with tape. This may sound silly, but it’s actually something former FBI Director James Comey admitted to doing as a daily privacy precaution.

If it’s an external camera, you can disconnect it, but it would be difficult to locate what is currently accessing the camera. So just find a way to block it for now. Keep in mind that this doesn’t block the microphone, so you’ll need to mute it if it’s built-in. If it’s an external microphone, disconnect it for now.

Even if you haven’t noticed any signs that someone is using the webcam, it’s still a good idea to check which apps have access to the camera. You might just be surprised. If you believe that an application does not have a valid reason to use the webcam, you can simply disable its access. If it is a suspicious app that you do not have installed, you should uninstall it immediately.

If you’re on Windows, you can check this in Settings. Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera.

2. If you came here because the indicator light was on, check to see if any “Currently in Use” apps are written underneath. This will be the one with visual access.

3. Review the list of apps that can access the camera and disable any that you think don’t need it.

4. While you’re there, scroll down a bit to the “Recent Activity” section to see a seven-day history of everything that has accessed your camera.

If you’re using a Mac, you can see what’s currently accessing your camera in Control Center:

1. Press Fn+C to open Control Center.

2. Check the green privacy notice at the top; it should either say something like “zoom.us” if an app like Zoom is using it or “zoom.us recently” if it has stopped recently.

3. While you’re at it, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera.

4. Disable all suspicious applications.

If hackers captured and recorded you, there might be evidence on your disk. This is far from the case, as they could have done it remotely or deleted all evidence, but it’s worth checking out. The problem is that recording can take place anywhere on your computer and searching beyond standard folders like “Videos”, “Pictures”, “Screenshots” and “Recordings” can take a long time. A more effective method would be to search large records and investigate from there.

Windows does not have a built-in application or feature that sorts folders by size. You will have to rely on a third-party application. Here’s what to do:

1. Download and install WinDirStat.

2. In WinDirStat, select the drive you want to analyze.

3. Click “OK”.

4. After the scan is complete, look for unusually large folders that you don’t recognize in the tree view. Continue developing the children until you find the large file in question and see if it’s a video recording that you didn’t make.

5. If you find a suspicious recording, right-click on it and select “Delete”.

On Mac, it’s a little simpler since you don’t have to download anything to see which files are taking up too much space. Proceed as follows:

1. Go to System Settings > General > Storage.

2. Double-click “Documents.”

3. Check the “Large Files” tab for any strange records.

4. If you find any, select them – press the Command key while clicking to select more than one.

5. Click “Delete” in the lower right corner.

A sudden drop in performance may have an innocent cause. Several features can slow down your computer during use, such as syncing files from built-in cloud services or a system update being downloaded. Sometimes it could be an application that slows down your computer, such as an antivirus, web browser, or video recorder. If one or more of the warning signs above appear, then you should investigate further to make sure you are not being recorded.

If you are on Windows, you should check Task Manager for suspicious applications and processes:

1. Right-click on the taskbar and select “Task Manager.”

2. Select the “Processes” tab.

3. Check the cause of high CPU usage from the list.

4. If it’s suspicious, right-click on it.

5. Select “End Task” from the menu.

Mac users can do the same in Activity Monitor:

1. Press Command + Spacebar to open “Spotlight Search”.

2. Type “Activity Monitor.”

3. Press Enter.

4. Check the cause of high CPU usage from the list.

5. If it’s suspicious, select it.

6. Click “Stop” – the “X” button in the upper left corner of the Activity Monitor.

7. Select “Exit” in the pop-up window.

As with performance drops, if your network becomes slow for no reason, coupled with other warning signs, it may indicate that something is transmitting or a file is downloading. You can also look for the culprit in the “Network” tab of Task Manager or Activity Monitor. Again, if the cause of high network usage seems abnormal to you, kill or stop it.

Even if you haven’t noticed any network issues, that doesn’t mean nothing happened in the past. You should check the network usage of applications and processes to see which ones are consuming a lot of data. If you find one you don’t recognize, do a quick Google search to make sure it’s not malware. If it is an application, uninstall it immediately, and if it is a process, check if it is still running and delete it. Next, you need to update your antivirus and run a full system scan.

To check which app is using a lot of data in Windows, go to Settings > Network & Internet > Advanced network settings > Data usage. See the “Usage Statistics” section. It should list apps and processes, and how much data they used in the last 30 days. Unfortunately, there’s nothing like this on Mac, so you have to rely on the “Network” tab to monitor things in real time.