You know what’s really screwed up? AFAIK, no one has actually verified for sure that the iSight camera lights on MacBooks don’t have some kind of backdoor in the chip to turn the light off while it’s recording.
I’ve search everywhere including iFixit and nada. I want to see a full breakdown of the camera housing and a close study of the actual chip. If you search around the Internet there’s only hearsay that the light is “wired” to the camera and is impossible to disable. Is it really?
Pretty soon, companies will have to market their newest products as “NSA proof” to try and regain confidence. Not exactly the kind of American technological superiority the government is used to bragging about.
yeah, or maybe:
“This is one of the crypto standards that the NSA sabotaged”
the story was not about a singular standard getting compromised, but standards (plural). we’ve already heard about this one and IPSEC right here on boing boing. definitely a curious choice of words for the title.
Bobby Burns comments on the NSA and mice:
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
Well, if this simulation is eventually as good as the one in Saints Row IV, we’re all set.
God that game is fun.
Why would you bother diagnosing recording LED indicator shenanigans on laptops? Video has a significant bandwidth footprint, so you could just measure what’s being written to memory or disk or network.
Or, y’know, put a piece of black tape over it, if that’s a concern.
Why would you bother diagnosing recording LED indicator shenanigans on laptops?
I’m not sure I follow what you mean there, you’re using jumbled, confusing wording.
But if your question is why would government agencies bother to access the cam, I think that would be pretty clear. It’s to put a face to a user.
Video has a significant bandwidth footprint
It’s not necessarily just for video, it would be for taking snapshots. That’s what happens with most people that have slaves today, anyway.
Or, y’know, put a piece of black tape over it, if that’s a concern.
Or, it’d be nice to know if Apple can disable the light in the first place.
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