Norton Security Suite

Will antivirus software prevent any attempt at someone using my webcam/watching it?

I have heard about trojans and such recently that can take control of your webcam and watch you. Antivirus software will prevent this from happening, right?

Public Comments

1. Maybe not. If someone 'hacks' your computer, no anti-virus software can prevent that.
2. basically, unless *you* run software that runs the camera, nothing is going to run the camera.
3. One way this can work is through a 'clickjack' (from the "NoScript" webpage) "with "Clickjacking" we designate a class of attacks (also known as "UI Redressing") which consist in hiding or disguising an user interface element from a site you trust (e.g. the "Send" button of your webmail site or a pre-configured "Donate" Paypal button) in a way which leads you to click it without knowledge of what you're exactly doing. In the impressive proof of concept by RSnake and Jeremiah, you clicked anywhere in their apparently innocuous page, believing you were doing nothing dangerous, but in reality you were activating your microphone and/or your webcam for Flash access, allowing the remote attacker to spy on you instantaneously. More in general, an attacker can frame a portion of a certain web page you trust inside a different page under his control, decontextualizing it or making it transparent: this way he can easily trick you into interacting with it, and you end to perform a financial transaction or allow him special permissions, without remotely suspecting that something evil is going on." Having liberal settings for JavaScript is a bad security posture for Windows, for many reasons. End 'Clickjacks' with Firefox and 'NoScript' add-on. http://noscript.net/?ver=1.9.0.6&prev=1.9.0.5