Camera Lock for OS X keeps prying eyes from spying on you.

There was a flurry of stories some months back about rogue programs or hackers activating webcams that were external or built-in on desktop and Mac laptops. The stories left a lot of people with a queasy feeling, and recent NSA revelations have also called into question the security of our computers and mobile devices.

Camera Lock (US$2.99, currently 40% off) is an interesting Mac utility that enables you to lock out your camera and refuse access by any app. If the camera was already in use, the video freezes and the green LED starts flashing.

The app operates from the Mac menu bar, and lets you lock or unlock access to the camera. If unlocked, the app alerts you that someone or some app is trying to access the camera. The Camera Lock app can be launched at login, and there is a log that shows recent activity.

I tried the app on my MacBook Air and it worked as advertised. When locked, the camera simply would not work with apps including FaceTime and Messages. When unlocked, the green LED flashed when I accessed the camera.

Unsurprisingly, Camera Lock worked in an identical manner on my Mac Pro, which uses a Logitech external USB webcam. The LED flashed when it was accessed, but when the lock was on no other app could get to the video. When cameras are locked and unlocked, you get an on-screen notification and a sound.

I’m not sure how much of a threat people spying on you from your webcam is, but certainly it has been done and Camera Lock seems to prevent it smoothly and effortlessly. Of course any system can be bypassed by knowledgeable hackers, so the best protection against camera intrusion is to have no camera at all or put a piece of tape over it.

Camera Lock requires OS X 10.9 or later and a 64-bit processor.

Always Practice Safe Charging: Your iPhone Can be Hacked Via a Modified Charger.

When traveling, always practice safe charging with your iOS devices, as a team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have put together a prototype charger capable of installing malware onto an iPhone.

Gizmodo:

The research, which is to be presented at the Black Hat security conference in late July and was spotted by Forbes, was born out of the idea of creating innocent-looking devices which could be used to hack phones.

Describing their findings as “alarming”, the researchers explain: ”Despite the plethora of defense mechanisms in iOS, we successfully injected arbitrary software into current-generation Apple devices running the latest operating system (OS) software… All users are affected, as our approach requires neither a jailbroken device nor user interaction.”

The charger, dubbed Mactans, (another name for the Black Widow spider), uses a small onboard computer to perform its devious duties. It is based on the Texas instruments BeagleBoard, which retails at $45. At this point, the resulting package comes in at three inches square, so it’s noticeably bigger then your average power supply, however it could be squeezed into a smaller form factor if needed.

Thankfully, the details on how it works are few, but the researchers claim the charger can compromise an iOS device in under a minute, and say the malware is persistent and tough to spot.