Sophos Cloud Optix
Well, here’s a whole different kind of “endpoint security” from the usual.
A product called “PrivateEye” uses your computer’s webcam to identity your face. While you’re sitting in front of your PC and looking at the screen, PrivateEye’s facial recognition software knows not to do anything – but as soon as you look away, the contents of your screen become an unintelligible blur.
It’s not going to stop malware and remote hackers stealing data from your computer’s hard drive, but it could – claim developers Oculis Labs – prevent “shoulder-surfers” who try to spy what’s on your screen when you’re reading confidential information. That’s because if the PrivateEye software spies an extra face alongside yours it can immediately hide your screen’s contents.
Sounds like a fun tool to play with! But unfortunately I don’t have a copy, so I have to make do with this YouTube video instead:
Good luck to the folks at Oculis Labs who produce “PrivateEye”.
It’s great to see a small technology company trying something different, although I’m not sure how popular this would be in the corporate environment. Think about all the times you invite someone over to your desk to show them the groovy animation you’ve just done in PowerPoint, or ask the IT guy to visit to work out why Lotus Notes isn’t working properly.
Has anyone out there tried PrivateEye? If so, do me a favour and try the following and tell me if it worked or not:
1) Draw a smiley face on a balloon and put it in front of your webcam. Were you able to fool PrivateEye?
2) Grab the dog and sit him on your chair. Any luck?
3) Try a face mask on a stick, “Being John Malkovich”-style.
I can imagine this software being a lot of fun. Funnily enough, it reminded me a little of the RAPIL April Fool that SophosLabs produced a few years back – but I’m sure that PrivateEye isn’t a joke!
Hat-tip: I found out about PrivateEye through a PC Magazine review, written by the legendary Neil Rubenking.
Couldn't find a picture of a smiling balloon huh?
the john malkovich on a stick one would probably work. having worked with facial recognition technology in the past it's been my experience that photos are generally good at fooling the system.
i'm sure frequent users of botox would have an issue with this
I'm using it now, trial version and its very good. One thing I would love to see is the ability to keep the screen blurred even if the mouse/keyboard is used. As it stands now, If i walk away from my desk the screen goes blurry. If someone sits at my desk and moves the mouse the screen goes back to normal. This may be by design, as its not intended to be a replacement for locking the desktop but how cool would that be?!?
Hi Nick – I know what you mean, but PrivateEye will actually protect against the instance you mention. If left alone for more than a few seconds PrivateEye will not let someone back in by just moving the mouse. Please check out my blog post from yesterday about it:
http://www.oculislabs.com/company/blog/privateeye…
I took a picture of me with iPhone and showed it back, un-blurred system.
I have a little Jack Bauer action figure on my desk. Brought him up to the screen and it blurred, sounded the alarm, and put his picture up in the corner. I felt like CTU. And like I was about to killed by Jack Bauer.