Q: iSight camera light turned on by itself...am I hacked?

J. Ashley wrote:... Is it possible that I have malware on my computer that I don't know about? Am I hacked? Should I update my OS? Could it be a hardware issue? Somebody please help.

If you have malware on your computer, whether you know about it or not, the easiest way I know to correct the problem is to backup your startup drive, then zero the drive, and reinstall everything from known good media.  This requires a lot of time and effort, but it is the only way I know to be certain of what is on your desk.  If you need it, detailed help is given in How to reinstall Mac OS X from scratch. 

If you don't know how to zero (securely erase) your disk, see How to Secure Erase a Mac SSD / Hard Disk from Recovery Mode for more detailed help than you can find in your Mac's Disk Utility > Help.

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac OSX 10.11.3

Go to

>System Preferences...>Sharing

and see if any of these options are checked:

Screen sharing

Remote login

Remote management

Remote apple events

if any are uncheck them.

then go to

Macintosh HD (or whatever you named your HD)/Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor

and if the camera is on and see if you can identify a process or app that turned on the camera.

and in lieu of wiping the drive, reinstalling, etc at this time just stick a piece of black electrical tape on the camera and whatever is accessing that camera won't have much to look at. disable the internal mic from

>System Preferences...>Sound

either select a non miced source like the digital in or turn the input on the line-in or built in (my mac has line in, no built in Mic when I did the screen shot) to the left most position with the slider.

this bypasses the mic

or this should effectivly turn off your mic's ability to record if it's the only option

EDIT: Just checked a system with built in, this will show as "Internal Microphone / built in" on your Mac and not "Line in" as it does on mine: