Mark Zuckerberg was celebrating the 500 million user milestone at Instagram and he ought to because his company owns Instagram after all. But this honest celebration turned out not to celebrate the obvious message he had on the sign he was holding. Well most people already knew that was a formality but a hawk eyed Twitter user named Chris Olson noticed something many didn’t see and it was that the computer in front of one of the biggest names in tech had some weird stuff. Both the camera and microphone were taped in an apparent sign of transmission blockage. You see sometimes and somewhere deep down, we all go back to the old fashion way sometimes to tackle modern day challenges.
Come to think of it the easiest way for anyone to get on your device besides physical access is through your camera and microphone. Paranoia or not, Mark Zuckerberg is 32, worth about $36b and founded the biggest social media company in the world and this ultimately makes him a high value target to other tech companies and individuals and possibly criminal elements. With modern day technologies available to just anyone, you can spy on people and can be spied on. With threats though, more cyber security measures are being taken to mitigate the effects of these threats and Mark Zuckerberg should be in the class of the protected but what possible reasons could have made him do it the old way instead?
The first could be that he had taken the necessary precautions and still thought that this layer of security was still needed eventually. You see you can’t take in any device with a camera and microphone like smartphones and other devices capable of recording into some secure facilities in the world and it’s standard practise. There are people who just need to have access to Mark Zuckerberg’s next plans for the social media world for whatever reasons. That’s the reason why many top tech CEOs don’t cross borders with the device that contains their trade secrets from codes to patents. It’s quite risky even as many advanced nations have been accused of installing spy gadgets that are capable of stealing information from businesses of their rival nations. A clear example would be the United States and China. Put simply, Mark Zuckerberg is high value target for such scenarios.
The second could just be attributed to being over careful or what some have described as paranoia.
In any case, threats are real and its important you also protect your devices from programs that are capable of spying on you using micro devices like your microphone and camera.
Editor’s note: This was originally posted last week and as a result of the downtime we had, we are republishing this. We regret any inconveniences this may have caused. TechBooky is doing all in its power to reduce such incidents in future
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
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