 You've probably seen people cover their webcams, but should you cover your webcam? Former FBI Director James Comey thinks you should. Do you still have a piece of tape over your cameras at home? Heck yeah. Edward Snowden and even Mark Zuckerberg appear to cover theirs. It could protect you from attacks like the one Miss Teen USA experienced in 2013 in which a man secretly spied on her and recorded her and then blackmailed her. But you're not a head of state, and you're also not a celebrity, so do you really need to worry about someone spying on you through your laptop's camera? Well, yeah. In 2013, a hacker told the BBC that access to a woman's webcam cost about a dollar and that he had access to 500 computers. That's crazy. So to find out how common these attacks are and whether we should be worried, I talked to Todd Beardsley, the research director at cybersecurity and penetration testing company Rapid 7. There are occasionally bugs in web-based technologies that allow attackers to open your webcam and record video on it. There are pretty far and few in between. He explained to me that these vulnerabilities often show up in Flash and Java, and at this point there might even be one in HTML5. What really sucks is that you won't know if a website is affected. Also, hackers can turn off your webcam's light so you won't actually know whether you've been compromised. That's not great. Anything that wants you to click in a very specific place in your browser, that would be very suspect. You see a lot more now with location services, like click here to allow location services. That's typically the control on web users as well. There's not a lot you can do about it other than at least tape. Okay, so at least tape will stop someone from spying on you visually. That's a relief. But how effective is covering our webcams and should we do it? Having it covered is a super cheap, super easy thing to do that also doesn't get you a lot, but at least it makes you feel better, right? And it is a signal to other people that you think about security. Okay, so Todd says it can't hurt, but covering your laptop camera doesn't actually address the much bigger risk of your cell phone camera and microphone. Microphone hacking is probably just as creepy and incriminating as a video. If I can record conversations in the room, that piece of tape is not going to stop me. We actually tested this. Hey. Hey, okay. So can you try to talk to me with your phone away from your face? Sure. Can you say about how loudly I would talk if I was having a conversation with someone in your room? Okay, so I can hear you pretty perfectly. Meaning if a hacker had hacked into your microphone, even if you had tape over it, he or she would still be able to hear what you're saying. I hate to break it to you all, but the reality is that cameras and microphones are everywhere now. We have smart home speakers, cell phones, laptops, smart refrigerators, and even voice enabled TV remotes listening to us at all times. Unless you're going to tape over or physically disable every one of those cameras or microphones, you're still going to be at risk. But if nothing else, we can at least prevent webcam attacks with tape. There is some superstitious comfort you get because you can see the camera sticker all the time. Like you're looking at it and you can think like, I'm doing it right. It's a little bit self congratulatory to put the tape on the camera, but it does ultimately like also means that you're looking at security control all the time. So you might be thinking more about like, how long should my password be? Should I tell those people my password? Should I click on this link in this email? I think that is probably radical. So go ahead, put tape over your camera. It might not stop hackers from listening through your microphone, but it'll at least make us feel a little bit better and prevent them from watching us sleep at night.
 You've probably seen people cover their webcams, but should you cover your webcam?
 Former FBI Director James Comey thinks you should.
 Do you still have a piece of tape over your cameras at home?
 Heck yeah.
 Edward Snowden and even Mark Zuckerberg appear to cover theirs.
 It could protect you from attacks like the one Miss Teen USA experienced in 2013 in which
 a man secretly spied on her and recorded her and then blackmailed her.
 But you're not a head of state, and you're also not a celebrity, so do you really need
 to worry about someone spying on you through your laptop's camera?
 Well, yeah.
 In 2013, a hacker told the BBC that access to a woman's webcam cost about a dollar and
 that he had access to 500 computers.
 That's crazy.
 So to find out how common these attacks are and whether we should be worried, I talked
 to Todd Beardsley, the research director at cybersecurity and penetration testing company
 Rapid 7.
 There are occasionally bugs in web-based technologies that allow attackers to open your webcam and
 record video on it.
 There are pretty far and few in between.
 He explained to me that these vulnerabilities often show up in Flash and Java, and at this
 point there might even be one in HTML5.
 What really sucks is that you won't know if a website is affected.
 Also, hackers can turn off your webcam's light so you won't actually know whether you've
 been compromised.
 That's not great.
 Anything that wants you to click in a very specific place in your browser, that would
 be very suspect.
 You see a lot more now with location services, like click here to allow location services.
 That's typically the control on web users as well.
 There's not a lot you can do about it other than at least tape.
 Okay, so at least tape will stop someone from spying on you visually.
 That's a relief.
 But how effective is covering our webcams and should we do it?
 Having it covered is a super cheap, super easy thing to do that also doesn't get you
 a lot, but at least it makes you feel better, right?
 And it is a signal to other people that you think about security.
 Okay, so Todd says it can't hurt, but covering your laptop camera doesn't actually address
 the much bigger risk of your cell phone camera and microphone.
 Microphone hacking is probably just as creepy and incriminating as a video.
 If I can record conversations in the room, that piece of tape is not going to stop me.
 We actually tested this.
 Hey.
 Hey, okay.
 So can you try to talk to me with your phone away from your face?
 Sure.
 Can you say about how loudly I would talk if I was having a conversation with someone
 in your room?
 Okay, so I can hear you pretty perfectly.
 Meaning if a hacker had hacked into your microphone, even if you had tape over it, he or she would
 still be able to hear what you're saying.
 I hate to break it to you all, but the reality is that cameras and microphones are everywhere
 now.
 We have smart home speakers, cell phones, laptops, smart refrigerators, and even voice
 enabled TV remotes listening to us at all times.
 Unless you're going to tape over or physically disable every one of those cameras or microphones,
 you're still going to be at risk.
 But if nothing else, we can at least prevent webcam attacks with tape.
 There is some superstitious comfort you get because you can see the camera sticker all
 the time.
 Like you're looking at it and you can think like, I'm doing it right.
 It's a little bit self congratulatory to put the tape on the camera, but it does ultimately
 like also means that you're looking at security control all the time.
 So you might be thinking more about like, how long should my password be?
 Should I tell those people my password?
 Should I click on this link in this email?
 I think that is probably radical.
 So go ahead, put tape over your camera.
 It might not stop hackers from listening through your microphone, but it'll at least make us
 feel a little bit better and prevent them from watching us sleep at night.