Why do many computer scientists, whether they are friends or those you see on TV, cover their computer’s webcam ? Several cases have already been demonstrated in which the audio and video devices on our computers have been used by cybercriminals to spy on us without our noticing. Several cases have long come to light, demonstrating how dangerous this practice is. Taking into account that our smartphones have a multitude of cameras… can the same thing happen?
With the expansion of mobile phones, this concern has moved from the computer market to the telephony market because, let’s not forget, that a smartphone is nothing more than a computer the size of the palm of your hand.
Can you spy on me using the mobile camera?
The answer is given by numerous security researchers: “If a certain piece of equipment has a built-in camera, it is possible that someone – be it the government of a nation or a 19-year-old teenager with enough knowledge – could access it to spy on it. user at any time “.
Today there are even different spy programs designed specifically to hack the camera of a mobile device without the user realizing it. This is double bad news since, on the one hand, it is confirmed that almost anyone could access to see us through the phone’s camera and, on the other hand, that the technical capacity necessary to hack a victim’s phone and use its components to know what we do has been drastically reduced.
How can they spy on us?
Fortunately, not everyone has access to these tools, but it is true that there are more and more software products that can take photos, record videos or audio with the phone’s camera (either with the front or rear, or both at the same time. Same time).
Spyware like FlexiSPY will record a video without the victim knowing anything. Then the video can be uploaded directly to an online database and they can even broadcast our phone signal live and direct.
Check if they are spying on you
It is quite difficult to know if they are spying on you with the mobile camera but fortunately, as the methods to intrude on our private lives grow, solutions by app developers and large companies increase.
The methods used to hack and install malware or spyware that can control the phone’s camera or microphone are not easily detected but generally enter through a file download from an unknown location. Have you downloaded an app of dubious origin and you start to have doubts?
Unfortunately, antivirus for Android is not entirely reliable to detect these intrusions, but if your smartphone begins to behave strangely, it is likely that they are spying on you in one way or another. If the battery gets too hot without you doing anything and it wears out abnormally, it can be a key to detecting possible malicious apps. Similarly, a high consumption of mobile data may imply that someone is sending files from your mobile to a server
Use this app to be calm
Apple introduced a new security feature in iOS 14 that reveals whether the camera is spying on you , showing an indicator if a certain app is using it. Access Dots is an Android application that allows you, precisely, the same thing, to know if any of your applications access your camera and microphone without your knowledge. The app shows a green dot on the top of the phone that indicates that an app uses the camera and turns orange if the microphone is used. To this we add the possibility of accessing an access log that shows when the camera was last accessed, which application did it and how long the access lasted.
Access Dots itself does not request access to the camera or microphone, it is free to download and will be visible even on the lock screen. It is compatible with Android 7.0. You can access the Access Log from the main configuration screen of the application.
The key is in the permissions
On the latest Android phones, you can check which apps have access to the microphone and camera in settings> apps> permissions. If your device has been hacked or malware has been installed that may be spying on you, you can locate it here.
There are photo apps, or social networks that obviously need to access the component. But does it make sense for a flashlight app to require access to the camera? And a music player? Obviously not.
How to avoid it?
Android is an open platform that has Google Play Protect among its main tools, in charge of analyzing all the apps that we download from the app store. But being open, it implies that we can install applications from other sources than the Play Store as long as we allow it from the security settings. Installing apps of unknown origin is the main entry point for these spyware, so we always recommend not installing anything from outside the Play Store unless you do so with full knowledge and under your responsibility.
But this is not the only way in which they can infect our device. Whenever you can, you should avoid doing the following:
- Don’t root without knowledge
- Make sure to apply all app and system updates
- Although they are not 100% reliable, you should install an antivurus on your computer to help protect yourself
- Be careful about the apps you install and the permissions you give them, even when they come from the Google Play store.
- Be wary of links and attachments that arrive through email, SMS and other channels, with instant messaging apps.
If you still have the fear that your mobile may contain some software that implies that they use the camera to spy on you, you can always return the mobile to its factory state, eliminating any possible malicious app. Do it from the Backup and Restore Settings of your phone, first making a backup copy of your contents, as this process removes photos, apps, videos, files and all kinds of elements that are present in the memory of the mobile.