16 yr old daughter webcam turning on randomly

Rikki

Stoke wrote: »

Firstly, doesn't necessarily have to be someone else. There's a face recognition software on my laptop as standard that switches it on at weird times and it isn't very refined.

First thing to do is stick a piece of black tape over it. Problem solved till you fix the main issue.

I have tape over mine too.

patchwork_cat

Oh yes first thing is tape and she did it straight off without my prompting, she is freaked out! Thank you all, I am not punishing her as she is the one that old me about the light and asked advice, she is a young woman not a child.

Stoke

Sounds like her head is screwed on. Might be a false alarm. Perhaps try running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware software.

Gillor

Just in case she has picked up a remote access trojan such as Blackshades run a scan with this which will remove it.

tom15387202

Its the NSA

http://www.wired.com/2014/03/webcams-mics/

googler

Unplug it until she actually wants to use it?

esuhl

rmg1 wrote: »

I'd agree with this apart from using AVG. I've found Avast to be lighter but that's just my personal preference.

Huh. That's interesting. I've found AVG to be more lightweight, but I've had a fair few false-positives and failed detections with AVG, whereas Avast seems much better at getting rid of malware (although maybe that was just luck and AVG would perform better with a different PC with different infections).

MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware (as recommended above) is brilliant -- so install and run that. And I've found that adwCleaner is great at getting rid of malware-related browser add-ons and toolbars:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

If the webcam is never used, you can probably disable it in the BIOS settings. (You can access the BIOS by hitting the relevant key almost immediately after turning on the PC -- usually DEL, or one of the function keys F1 to F12).

Alternatively, if the webcam is on a laptop... Is there an icon for the webcam on any of the function keys? If so, you may be able to hold down the Fn (or Function) key and hit the webcam key to enable/disable it.

Or, you could disable and re-enable the webcam via the Device Manager.

I'm sure the news sites are scaremongering to some degree, but it's probably best to be careful if you have a webcam:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/blackshades-malware-remote-access-webcam-fbi
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=webcam+malware

matttye

rmg1 wrote: »

I'd agree with this apart from using AVG. I've found Avast to be lighter but that's just my personal preference.
It might also be worth checking the installed programs and checking any you're not sure of.

::edit::
And please don't download AV programs from CNET. There have been recent articles (can't lay my hands on any unfortunately) that CNET were bundling "extras" with the software that the vendors weren't aware of. Google will take you directly to the vendors site.

::2nd edit::
Filehippo is a good place to go if you can't find the software easily on the vendors site.

Everyone says Avast is great but I got my first ever Windows 7 BSoD when I installed it.

henrygregory

patchwork_cat wrote: »

As you can tell from the title my 16 yr old daughter's webcam is turning itself on randomly. I am a bit freaked that some peeping tom is doing this, but also cross with her for not being more careful. What do I need to do to remove it and what good free malware and firewall do I upload for future prevention? TIA folks from a rather alarmed mum x

Could be a driver related issue. One way to tell would be to disable the internet connection and see if the webcam still comes on.

A more direct way to put a stop to any peeping toms would be to put some blu-tac over the lens.

esuhl

matttye wrote: »

Everyone says Avast is great but I got my first ever Windows 7 BSoD when I installed it.

Wow! A BSOD in Windows 7?! I haven't seen one of those!

But I have had problems with Avast (particularly around early Spring when I started using it over Avira). Some systems work fine with it, a fairly high proportion of others seem to be afflicted by random slow-downs and services not starting...

But (when it works acceptably) it does seem to get rid of 99.9% of the junk on an infected machine, and does a better job than Avira or AVG (in my recent but minimal experience)... :-/

If Avast works fine on one machine, you can use it to create a bootable Avast Rescue Disc, which works really well (on all the PCs I tried it on).