Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Photography and Surveillance: Webcam RATters

The webcam image photographic work of Cheryl Sourkes definitely left me feeling unsettled and reminded me eerily of an article I found online a couple of months ago. The article “Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams” can be found at http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/rat-breeders-meet-the-men-who-spy-on-women-through-their-webcams/ and discusses the way in which hackers use a virus program called Remote Administration Tool to not only execute commands on their victims’ computers, but also to turn their webcam into a one-way surveillance camera.  The creepiest part about these self-named “ratters” is that they can infect computers and operate webcams without the user having any idea that anything is occurring. The ratters are able to stealthily invade the homes of their so-called “slaves” and watch them for hours on end- they consider this a form of entertainment. The ease in which the hackers can operate in secret as well as the user-friendly nature of the Remote Administration Tool software really enable anyone with access to a computer the ability to spy on anyone else who possesses a laptop with a webcam. While it may be argued that the internet is a “public” place, and therefore any content posted online is fair game to be viewed by anyone, anywhere, these “slaves” are not posting anything online or even necessarily accessing the internet. Technology has increase the extent to which people are able to spy on each other to such an alarming magnitude that we are not even safe in our own homes. The Sourkes images disturbed me because they seemed to fall in the same category as these images and videos captured by “ratters” and Sourkes does not explain on her website exactly where and how she obtained these images. This art just further enforces the scary truth that anytime you use your computer equipped with a webcam, anyone could be watching.

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