Yet another case of peeping via webcams has surfaced, this time with a 20-year-old computer repair tech arrested on suspicion of installing spyware on an unknown number of Mac laptops. This case is notable for the devilish use of fear-mongering instructions that saw many victims bring their laptops into their bathrooms, and for the sheer audacity of the crime--"hundreds of thousands of pictures" were reportedly found by police on the man's computer.

The reports got me thinking: While it's fairly easy to determine if your webcam is spying on you, how can you be sure that sneaky spyware is not surreptitiously funneling all your keystrokes or personal information to a remote server? Executives and professionals do practically everything on individual work laptops these days, and bring them almost everywhere. Are there any solutions that can ensure that our laptops are truly on our side?

Sure, the more security-conscious IT professionals would have made vows to never run software from dubious sources or download from P2P sites. They'd also be diligent in ensuring that key software applications are kept updated and operating systems are patched in a timely manner. Good anti-malware software will be updated with the latest virus definitions, and the more paranoid will insist on a full reinstallation of the operating system, even on a brand new laptop.

For all the measures listed above however, it is highly dubious whether they are of use against zero-day malware, malicious software that targets flaws not known to software vendors and that is usually of novel origin. Even the use of whitelisting security software on top of malware scanners is no guarantee there that a Trojan could not be slipped in via an innocuous-looking browser plug-in, or as part of a legitimate software package.

Put it this way: Hackers can probably come up with an impressive number of attack vectors for just about every defensive measure that can be conjured up. On the flip side, a sufficiently locked-down machine is probably not very usable.

What are your thoughts on the challenge of properly securing a laptop? I would also love to hear what you do to personally protect your laptop. - Paul Mah (Twitter @paulmah)