Believe it or not, your webcam is also a target for malicious actors looking to extract information from your computer, or simply playing at being "Big Brother" while invading someone else's privacy. A classic solution is to place a piece of tape over the lens, but if you prefer a software-based alternative, the answer is Who Stalks My Cam, which detects, enables, and interrupts webcam access according to your preferences.
One of the preferred paths for those seeking to take remote control of a computer and monitor every detail is to disguise malware with RAT (remote administration tool) functions and wait for the user to try to install it. Needless to say, once the "package" is on the system, the remote element can extract usernames, passwords, and why not, activate the webcam. Getting a live feed from the webcam and watching every movement and/or expression of the user presents a kind of "one-person Big Brother" that immediately reminds us why all the fights waged in the name of privacy are valid, but there are two extra details: More and more programs are requesting privileged access to the webcam (including web browsers), and in the vast majority of cases, webcams are proprietary technology, so we have no idea if there is some kind of "backdoor" or bug in their firmware.
Anyone who has visited a security convention has probably seen laptops with covered webcams. That action is, after all, an effective first line of defense against unwanted activation of the webcam. And on the other hand, there are pieces of software like Who Stalks My Cam. In simple terms, it is a watchdog for the installed webcam. Through its interface, the user decides which program can access it and which ones are left out, but it also presents alerts when it detects unusual activity. The interruption can be immediate, with a time lapse, if the responsible process runs in the background, or if it is not preconfigured in the whitelist.
From a certain point of view, Who Stalks My Cam is a more advanced tool than we imagine, and perhaps many users out there still prefer to place a piece of tape over the lens; however, we are supposed to be in control of our hardware, and this application helps us achieve that from another angle. As always, the most adventurous can open their laptops and physically remove the webcam, but that's another story...
