Not too long ago Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg did it,Watch The War of the World and now the pope is doing it.

Covering up your webcam with a little strip of tape is the new hip thing -- at least if you're trying to avoid the peering eyes of hackers.

A photo circulating Twitter shows Pope Francis getting in on the trend. He's seen looking over his personal iPad, with a circular piece of tape carefully placed over the webcam.

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The photo -- originally shot by the Vatican newspaper a year ago -- is just going viral now, after it was tweeted out by security researcher Collin Anderson on Tuesday.

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As it made the rounds on Twitter, some users grew obsessed with finding out what that tiny white sticker with a red symbol on it really was. (The most plausible theory: It's the coat of arms for the Holy See and Vatican City State.)

While it might seem a little intense, a set of creepy eyes sitting on the other end of that tiny webcam is a very real possibility. And it can happen in a number of ways. Internet-connected webcams can be hacked by those who find their way onto your wi-fi network. Meanwhile, a computer-connected webcam -- like that tiny black circle sitting right above your laptop screen -- can also be controlled by hackers, as previously explained by Mashable.

"Hackers can access these cameras through malware," Mashable's Kellen Beck wrote. "If you accidentally click a bad link or download the wrong file, that malware could contain executable code to turn on your webcam and send that video feed to a website or save it somewhere else."

Looks like the pope knows his stuff.

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Topics Cybersecurity iPad