{"id":285665,"date":"2026-07-04T06:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T10:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/security-bite-a-note-on-camera-covers-in-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T10:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T14:30:11","slug":"security-bite-a-note-on-camera-covers-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/security-bite-a-note-on-camera-covers-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Security Bite: A note on camera covers in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Security Bite: A note on camera covers in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2026\/07\/04\/security-bite-why-i-stopped-using-camera-covers-and-you-should-too\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-07-04 06:21:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: 9to5mac.com<\/a><\/p>\n

9to5Mac Security Bite is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle,\u00a0the only Apple Unified Platform<\/strong>. Making Apple devices work-ready and enterprise-safe is all we do. Our unique integrated approach to management and security combines state-of-the-art Apple-specific security solutions for fully automated Hardening & Compliance, Next Generation EDR, AI-powered Zero Trust, and exclusive Privilege Management with the most powerful and modern Apple MDM on the market. The result is a totally automated Apple Unified Platform currently trusted by over 45,000 organizations to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL<\/strong> today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.<\/p>\n

Plastic webcam covers\u2014especially of the sliding kind\u2014boomed in popularity sometime in the 2010s as a low-tech way to keep hackers from eavesdropping on compromised machines. The concern felt justified at the time. But by 2020, Apple was beginning to issue warnings that those covers aren\u2019t actually needed and can even damage a MacBook\u2019s display.<\/p>\n

For this Security Bite, let\u2019s set aside our tin-foil hats and talk about how webcam covers don\u2019t meaningfully improve privacy, could cause features like True Tone to not work properly, and are far more likely to damage your screen than stop someone from spying on you.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Green light indicator myth<\/h2>\n

On more modern Macs\u2014those with Apple Silicon and Intel (post-2008)\u2014a malicious hacker can\u2019t turn on your webcam without also triggering the green privacy indicator. The camera module hardware doesn\u2019t allow it.<\/p>\n

Macs produced before 2008 are a different story, though. Security researchers at Johns Hopkins published a 2013 paper showing that Macs released prior to 2008 could, under certain advanced attacks, be coerced into powering the camera without the green LED indicator. It makes sense considering back then, Apple tied the camera…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Security Bite: A note on camera covers in 2026 https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2026\/07\/04\/security-bite-why-i-stopped-using-camera-covers-and-you-should-too\/ Publish Date: 2026-07-04 06:21:00 Source…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":285666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/11\/Copy-of-DOOMD2.png?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285667,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285665\/revisions\/285667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}