[PaulHoule]

When I was in a grad school I remember a professor who bought an SGI machine without enough RAM so he couldn't do work with it but he left it plugged into the wall outlet and ethernet for 5 years or so and didn't even know the root password when it got hacked.

Those machines came with a camera that had a little door you could slide to cover it, so at least he had that protection.

[Animats]

Those machines came with a camera that had a little door you could slide to cover it, so at least he had that protection.

Yes. Here's one in the closed position.[1] That feature seems to have disappeared.

There was a time when people were bothered about phones where the switchhook didn't physically disconnect the microphone. All the Western Electric phones had a hard disconnect when the phones were hung up. Many digital office phones don't have that, and can be used for eavesdropping.

[1] http://www.tamayatech.com/ProductImages/S/SGI-0138737XXX.jpe...