Detection of spy hardware

[Fronzel]

Hi,

I've been having PC problems for a while now. I suspect someone installed hardware to be able to spy on my computer activity (possibly, streaming to a kind of site). If you were to spy on someone in this way, how would you do it? Would you use certain hardware or certain software?

If I were to take pictures of the contents of my hardware case, would you be able to identify any hardware that doesn't belong there?

In addition, if you were to install hidden cameras in someone's house, possibly through TV or other electronics, how would you do it?

Thanks.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Spying on people would be indiscreet, if not illegal, so "how to spy on people" is not to be discussed on Tom's Hardware, per our forum policies.

An image of the interior of your computer is not likely to provide enough detail for anyone to discern any suspicious components installed.

The best you can do and the best we can recommend is to install an Anti-spyware/Anti-Malware application (or two) and run scans frequently (once or twice a week). Two that I would recommend are:

MalwareBytes
Spybot: Search and Destroy

Both are free to use.

-Wolf sends

 

[Fronzel]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not asking how to spy on people, I'm asking how to detect I'm being spied on.

Photographs may not provide enough detail, but can I understand from your reply that hardware capable of streaming computer activity exists?

 

[Wolfshadw]

If you were to spy on someone in this way, how would you do it?

This is essentially asking how to spy on someone.

Of course, there is hardware that can be used for spying, but it is almost always a typical computer component that has been compromised to act as a spy agent. I.E. you install a modified version of firmware for a specific component. The component acts as it normally would, but in addition to it's normal functions, it's also sending out data for unscrupulous means. There's no way a simple photo of your components could identify something like that.

If you're that worried about being spied upon, disconnect from any and all computer networks; to include the Internet. Anyone with sufficient know-how can see most anything you're doing without having to install anything into or onto your computer.

-Wolf sends

 

[bill001g]

Why would someone put hardware in your house to spy on you. The ISP or the government can do it at will. All they need to do it look at your traffic flowing though THEIR equipment and they can pretty much tell what you are doing. If you are stupid they can even trick you into giving them access to encrypted data streams.
Still even if they were to try to directly modify your computer why would you think that was hardware. Everything is virtual now days. How do you really know if the software you are running is really running on the machine in front of you or some remote data center. This is the main concept of cloud...even though it is really a step back to a big mainframe with dumb terminals.

How are you going to find virtual hardware with a camera....maybe a virtual camera

If you really want to be paranoid how can you really know if you are running on a virtual machine or not especially if someone made a effort to prevent you from seeing the virtualization software.