RAT attack! Take precautions or kiss your privacy goodbye

IMAGINE this: someone has gained access to your computer or smartphone through a link that contains malware. You open the link and a malicious piece of software, a remote access Trojan (RAT), is put on your computer.

Now the hacker can watch your every move through your webcam. This is webcam hacking. Almost all laptops have a webcam, and it can be compromised and your privacy can be invaded, says Francois Vermeulen, technical director at Ideco, a computer biometrics firm.

“This kind of hack is typically used for spying to gain sensitive or compromising screen shots or videos of the victim. The hacker will typically (use these for extortion). It’s a blackmail tool,” Vermeulen said.

“Not many South Africans are aware of this threat. There hasn’t been a lot of publicity and people think it’s only prominent people who are targeted.”

“The least technical, yet most effective way, for people to protect themselves is to cover their webcam lens with duct tape. “Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg uses this method,” says Rohan Isaacs, director of Norton Rose Fulbright.

Isaacs agrees it is only a small number of South Africans who know about this kind of threat.

“According to a Kaspersky Lab report, only 13’percent of South Africans cover their webcams.”

The danger of your webcam being hacked is that it often leads to “sextortion” (with nude video footage or images being used for extortion) or social media shaming, which is when a hacker puts comprising pictures on social media.

“Another danger is that malware can be used to control the entire computer remotely, giving the hacker full access to all your private documents.”

One of the best-known cases of webcam hacking involved Cassidy Wolf, former Miss USA Teen. A classmate installed a RAT on her laptop to take naked photographs of her.

The hacker sent Wolf an anonymous e-mail, threatening to post the intimate photographs of her on social media websites unless she sent additional photos to him or stripped for him during a Skype video chat. She went to the police and the man was arrested in 2013.

Vermeulen says other ways to protect yourself include ensuring your laptop is loaded with good anti-virus software.

“Unplug or disable your webcam when you are not using it. Password protect your device and don’t leave it unlocked when you are not present.”