Audio Surveillance :: Is This Possible???

I had a rather disconcering thought the other day that just came out-of-the-blue. Many of us have microphones attached or built-in to our computers through their soundcards. How difficult would it be for an outside entity to turn those on remotely and monitor sounds and conversations in our homes/offices?

Any thoughts?

it would be rather simple to turn on a microphone on your computer without you knowing. just like they can do with cell phones now. there is a difference tho. they can't turn it on if your computer is off or the mic is unplugged. a cell phone is easy to turn the mic on without the phone turned on because it relies on an airborne signal. computers on the other hand have either a hardline connection or a short range weak wifi signal.

Understood. But lots of us keep our PC's on 24/7. That is especially true in the workplace. But even if they could do it just during the day it would be a truly bad thing. Most people keep their computers on most of the day at least. Scary.

This would be a prohibitively difficult exercise. Generally it would require installation of a sophisticated virus through the internet. This could probably be done through a buffer overflow or web based exploit.

At which point, the software would have to then interface on a DEVICE level with the microphone, turn it on, and begin recording. Then encoding the data to compress it and transmit it to a specific IP or email or something.

So you're looking at several factors in your favor:
1) You probably have a dynamic IP, meaning you are simply a fish in a large school of other fish.

2) You could get good antivirus/spyware removal software and clean it off relatively easily.

3) You would notice this type of program almost immediately because the interfacing with the device and constant encoding/streaming of data across the internet would make your PC run like a pig.

agreed. i would be a bit more worried about my cell phone though as it is ALWAYS with me and on pretty much all the time.

You got me laughing this morning. Thank You

I have 11 years worth of funny stories on this topic.
Of course today I just cut loose with 4 letter words.

Yup, programs that do this are already known to exist. They aren't even very complicated. Have you read 1984 by George Orwell?

If someone really wanted to listen to you, laser mic's, some distance with direct line of sight to your window is all they would need and you would never know. Too many people track via their log's on their routers who does and does not access their internal networks (even if the open connection originated from your end).

Opening the hardware layer of your sound card isn't really difficult to accomplish, but finding out it is happening is even easier. Unless of course (which I'm sure you're not) you're dumb enough to have a totally insecure network. In fact, if you ever go to a website with a Flash app on it, you'll see if you right click it, that you can allow or deny certain functions from occuring, 2 of them in particular are to allow remote usage of your microphone and camera.

AB1

I believe They can and do ease drop on computer mics, cell phones, My other concern is the GPS capabilities with cells. Not only can they listen but have recordrd on some hard drive some where every where you have been, and who you are associated with. What about satelite radio, I would imagion there is a tracking device tied to that, and how do we know that the cable box on your tv doesent have a mic or moniter of some kind, Im sure they can tell what shows are watched also. Lets face it, The have the technology to moniter most people with any kind of electronic gizmo. I dont cary a cell phone and dont have satelite radio in my car, at least its a little harder to track where I am.

can this be done ? it is so simple to do its scary ! The same thing can be done with your webcam as well. i used to open and close a friend of mines
cd drive, it drove him nuts untill i finally told him who was doing it and how.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


Networks can triangulate the position of a cellphone already, without using GPS. It's not that accurate, but it works well enough for locating a handset.

Satellite radio is one-way. It doesn't send anything to the satellites. You can't be traced through it any more than you can through regular radio.

Also if you are that paranoid, I take it you don't drive a car, or show your face in public, or even use the phone or internet? You can be tracked by all of those.

Originally posted by jtma508
I had a rather disconcering thought the other day that just came out-of-the-blue. Many of us have microphones attached or built-in to our computers through their soundcards. How difficult would it be for an outside entity to turn those on remotely and monitor sounds and conversations in our homes/offices?

Any thoughts?

Look up "infinity transmitter". These devices are used to turn your telephone into a microphone that can listen in on your household. This is seriously old technology.

I dunno about modern analogs turning on the microphone in a PC.