Hackers who can hack your webcam so they can watch without you noticing? It once sounded like a paranoid thought, but it has long since become clear that this is not a myth. The dangers are great and it is therefore wise to take steps to prevent this from happening to you. This way you can protect your webcam.
Plug
The easiest and one hundred percent secure way to make sure no one can access your webcam without your permission is to unplug it. That sounds very simple, but it is the only way that really completely prevents the webcam from being used in any way, simply because there is no power and no connection. The disadvantage? Of course, this only works if you have a webcam that is connected externally and that is often not the case with laptops.
Switch off device
The second option is to disable the device through the Device Manager in Windows. To do this click on Start and type you Device Manager, after which you click on the found result. Search for the cup now Imaging devices and there should be the webcam you connected. Right click on this and then click on Switch off. The device will now turn off. This is a fairly safe method, but not one hundred percent. In theory, a hacker with sufficient access to your PC could turn the device back on. So make sure you always have a good virus and malware scanner running. That's no guarantee either, but hackers like to go for low-hanging fruit, so the harder you make it, the better.
cover
Another safe method is actually very simple. You can just cover the webcam. A photo on Facebook recently revealed that even Mark Zuckerberg put a sticker over his webcam. This method is also useful because it can be quickly reversed by removing the sticker if you want to use the webcam. In addition, if you search for 'webcam cover' on Google, you will find all kinds of handy sliders that you can easily slide over your cam. Just keep in mind that this only blocks the image. You can disable the microphone by right-clicking on the speaker in the system tray, then clicking Recording devices. Then right click on the desired microphone and choose Switch off.
