Camera light comes on

[GtrDude]

Last night I'm laying in bed watching You Tube videos and suddenly the light on the camera comes on. Goes off after about 5 seconds and then about 3 minutes later does the same. At this point I turned off the computer, macbook air latest.

Could someone please tell me why this happened?
I was not using Skype or any app that uses the camera, I never do that.

I see articles like this one: http://www.redmondpie.com/beware-ma...ivated-without-showing-any-green-light-alert/
and it doesn't exactly make me feel good about having the light on the camera come on like that.
I thought it was supposed to be difficult or next to impossible to hack these mac computers.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Fishrrman]

They be watchin' you!

Put a piece of black tape over it!

 

[fisherking]

seriously, what fishrrman says. cover it, AND also look into why it's turning on. check settings in Messages, check the Flash Player settings (in System Preferences) IF you have flash installed. but for a start, cover it.

 

[Queen6]

You (in error or social engineering) or someone else would need to install and application to do this type of action. You can look to scan the computer with Malwarebytes for Mac or BitDefender Virus Scanner (Apple Store) and see if one of them "tags" anything. As suggested physically blocking the camera is often the easiest solution, equally I would track down the reason for the light activating.

Q-6

 

[Mcmeowmers]

I would also avoid using the computer for personal banking and that kind of thing. If some has taken control of the camera it is possible they are recording keystrokes too

 

[Fishrrman]

Was this computer bought new or used?

Could it have something on it such as "undercover" ...?

 

[fricotin]

I think if it was a case of spying the malware would be smart enough to do it without the camera light turning on.