Posted: 11/23/2006 7:13:51 AM EDT
| Is it possible for someone to spy on someone on the other side of the world using one of those minicams and a laptop? |
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There's an urban legend that a skilled hacker could remotely activate a camera on the computer, so I'm leery of having one. Can't say for sure it's possible, but I bet it is. Even worse than that old legend that they can watch you through a TV hooked up to cable. 
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| Yes. There are programs where you can remotely control other computers. Upload an application to the system once you are sure the person is not working on it to stream the video over TCP/IP to your system, if they have a persistent internet connection, via broadband - or spool the video to a local file, and transfer the file to your system when they wouldn't notice, like after they go to sleep. Publically available programs like Webex allow you to transfer files via HTTP - there are other programs that could provide the same functionality without alerting the user the program is running on their system. The program to take control could be planted on the laptop via their browser, or, if they happen to have their security settings set to disable this, by a hotel housekeeping person. |