Avoid microphone use?

[RikTelner]

So, I may be kind of paranoid. I know some friends, which claim themselves being hackers.
Well, I am eager to not try to even thinking of messing with anyone. Cause one showed me the "another side of software".

To avoid problems when being hacked, I could just tape webcam that is integrated(?) into laptop's screen. They can break in how many times they want, but they aren't able to see jack doodely.

But how do I do this with microphone? I have microphone integrated(?) in laptop's somewhere. I could disable it in system settings. But yeah, they still can acitvate it. And listen.

How to do it on Microsoft Windows 8 and Linux Mint/Ubuntu? Without cutting wires? Both of them, cause somebody asked me this question, and I will find it as useful when I switch to Linux.

[rubberman]

For Linux, go into "Sound Preferences" and disable the audio input device. Don't have Win8 so I can't say what to do there, other than what I would do with Win7 - disable the mike in the hardware settings.

[RikTelner]

For Linux, go into "Sound Preferences" and disable the audio input device.

But I said in topic:

I could disable it in system settings. But yeah, they still can acitvate it. And listen.

[rch1231]

Hello,

A lot of people "claim" to be hackers and really are nothing of the sort. Your running Linux if you have a secure password, don't have your system set to auto log you in, don't give them the password or give them a login to your system then odds are they are not going to get on your computer. It would be different if it was Windows which has too many security holes to count. If you are really worried that some one might get on your computer then disconnect it from the network when you are not using the internet. That really makes it hard for people to connect. Then keep an eye on your /var/log/secure file to watch for people trying to hack the system or run a program like denyhosts to lock them out when they try to hack their way in.

[mike_2000_17]

Another good thing to do is to block ports in your router. There are tons of ports that are not useful for anything but exploits (e.g., ports that are used for some old or obscure feature that nobody really uses except that these "features" contain holes that hackers can use to get in). There are reports out there that detail all the ports that you should block... NSA has a number of public reports of that nature that you can follow. Router or computer firewalls generally don't block those ports because they are mostly focused on blocking torrents and other p2p protocols, they don't block "official" protocols, which is where real hacks come from.

It's also important to understand that 99.9% of "hacking" uses the "shotgun approach". The idea here is that they just diffuse their malicious software all over the place and catch the most vulnerable people. As long as there are enough vulnerable people to make it worth-while, they won't try a more aggressive attack. In other words, why try to attack some random guy who runs a secured version of Linux behind a uber-paranoid port-blocking router when you can just attack the grandma who thinks that the anti-virus she installed 3 years ago and never updated / renewed is keeping her safe, as she clicks on any random thing that pops up on her screen.

And at the end of the day, whatever the hacker is doing, the data must come out of your computer onto your network or further to the Internet. One effective method to see if there is anything suspicious going on is to just sniff or monitor your own traffic. If someone is tapping into your webcam or microphone, that will stick out like a sore thumb in your network traffic. At the very least, if you're not downloading or uploading anything and your traffic is more than zero.. then start asking questions. Here is a good summary of monitoring tools you can use.

[RikTelner]

A lot of people "claim" to be hackers and really are nothing of the sort.

One of them tried to teach me, and showed me how he used some kind of program to hack Windows 7 in VMPlayer. Windows 8 isn't that better in security. He can be claimed "script kiddo", but it is still kind of hacker.

when you can just attack the grandma who thinks that the anti-virus she installed 3 years ago and never updated / renewed is keeping her safe, as she clicks on any random thing that pops up on her screen.

Hahaha! I "LOL"ed heavily on this one.

At the very least, if you're not downloading or uploading anything and your traffic is more than zero.. then start asking questions. Here is a good summary of monitoring tools you can use.

Thanks, I'm gonna use that.