Dark Web Dangers: Turn Off Your Web Cam

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Most people have a misconception about the dark web. It's been built up to be a place for pornography, drug transactions and shifting of cyber currency but there are literally thousand of legit websites that see millions of hits (visits) a day. I use the dark web to read about conspiracy theories, keep up to date on new or pending cryptocurrencies, hacker activity and new viruses. If you have been on the dark web and have the TOR browser chances are you are surfing safely but the deeper you dig the more precautions you need to take. Regardless of what you are doing, one of the things you absolutely have to do is disable your webcam and microphone. This is a complete necessity if you have a built in webcam or mic. I forget to do this about 25% of the time but I have had people remotely access my webcam and turn it on. The most recent happening was not malicious but it did scare the crap out of me. I went into a chat room about the Patriot Act and gun ownership and wasn't paying attention to the chat log. About three minutes after I entered the room someone sent me an on screen message asking me if I was a Penguins fan (hockey). I didn't think anything of it until he asked me what I was listening to. Ignoring the message he sent a third attempt that read "Is that a Bon Jovi poster on your wall?" Years ago I had a poster autographed by the band when they were doing a pre concert meet and greet. I have it handing on the wall in my office with some other signed memorabilia. Reading that sentence froze me in my tracks. I looked right into the built in webcam on my laptop and started to panic. I wasn't worried about the things most people would be concerned with like credit card and identity theft - the first thing that came to mind was "Christ on a cracker, was I picking my nose?" If you have a built in webcam you can disable it or just cover it with a piece of tape. For after market cams, aim it at a wall or tip it over. For mic control you can turn it off from your dock or if you have an after market mic, just unplug it from the port. The person that was messaging me say I was panic stricken while I fumbled with a stack of Post It notes trying to fold one that I could put over the lens. He typed out a couple lines about "sorry if I scared you" and he went on to say that he monitors some of the rooms (on his own die and time) and can see who can an active or open webcam. Even though mine was not on it still showed up on his portal that it was exploitable. After that happened I wrote a large note for myself (on neon orange paper) and hung it on the wall right in front of my laptop. It simply reads, "Stupid, turn OFF your webcam". It could have been a lot worse, someone could have hijacked my cam and accessed t whenever they wanted. That's a scary thought indeed. Photo: Eye Cam