OverSight and KnockKnock?

R_55a wrote:

Is there any reason to doubt the integrity of either OverSight or KnockKnock?

There is no reason to doubt the integrity of these two apps. They aren't malware, if that is what you are asking.

Whether they are useful or not is a different question. They were made as a marketing effort for the author's speaking and consulting business. There isn't anything wrong with that. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you should rely upon such tools.

For most of us, no. More to maintain. Those look rather more like the sort of thing that shows up in a few updates, causing some weird problem that then gets posted here if they’re not maintained. And if you’re worried about the camera, get a camera cover.

If you’re a target for a well-funded adversary, you’re going to need a variety of additional changes to your environment and tools.

FWIW, Apple has implemented audio cut-off hardware in the latest T2-based hardware releases, and video inherently cuts off with the required cover.

The author recommends installing OverSight and KnockKnock.   

Coincidentally he does this on a blog on the Objective-See site, and these are made by Objective-See...

If your goal is video conferencing, will your participants all be using Apple devices or a mix of Apple & non-Apple ones? Do you have a maximum number of folks that you want to participate on these calls?

As far as Zoom, there are some security hurdles that need to be rectified before I would either use it myself or recommend it to others. The other two you mention, I could find little or no information on either.

FaceTime is what I would go for if the participants are all using Apple gear. For mixed gear, it would be either Skype or Google's Duo. Again, a lot depends on what your video conferencing requirements are which you have provided very little details on.

Maybe someone who has first-hand knowledge with the two you mention will chime in with their experiences. Good luck!

Zoom got about a thousand times their usual user load and a whole pile of security scrutiny in just a few weeks.

Their responses to this tsunami so far have been quite good.

They’re not making excuses, and they’re fixing holes. Fast.

Are they perfect? No.

Are there risks and trade-offs with any of the providers? Sure.

Do a whole lot of folks use video conferencing when they don’t need to? Absolutely.

More on what’s happening with Zoom security:

https://medium.com/@alexstamos/working-on-security-and-safety-with-zoom-2f61f197cb34

Quite positive, too.

Stamos is very familiar with high-end, high-scale security.