Any self-respecting paranoiac long ago taped over the webcam on their laptop—and for good measure, the cameras on their smartphone too. But for those truly concerned that their computers have been hacked and turned into spy tools, the microphones on those devices represent just as much of a security threat as the cameras. They would allow a hacked gadget to bug an entire room.

The good news for the targets of highly sophisticated cyberspies? There’s a practical fix for that audio espionage problem. The bad news: It requires some surgery.

No software setting can turn off a microphone such that a skilled hacker who controls your device can’t turn it back on. Instead, you can simply remove them, and then plug in an external microphone only when you truly need it.

“There’s no reason why these devices need those sensors to function,” says Kyle Wiens, the founder of device research and repair company iFixit. “And taking them apart to break the microphone isn’t any harder than fixing it.”

In fact, physically disconnecting a MacBook’s microphone is a simple, five-minute job that anyone can do with little more than a couple of cheap tools, Wiens says. Disabling an iPhone’s mics presents a greater challenge, but it's not impossible. A skilled iPhone repair technician can do it in less than 30 minutes for less than $100, or you can even do it yourself if you’re brave enough to dig into the guts of your phone.

Given the uniformity and popularity of Apple products—and the broadly recognized superiority of the iPhone’s security compared to Android’s—WIRED asked hardware specialists for advice specifically about how to deafen the mics in MacBooks and iPhones. Here’s what we found.

The Mic Jack Stub Trick

Before cracking open any computer, it's worth considering a simpler solution: Insert a small stub device into your headphone and microphone jack that tricks the computer into thinking that a mic is already plugged in. In his book, The Art of Invisibility, famed hacker Kevin Mitnick describes how to create a "dummy mic plug" by cutting off the plug from an old pair of mic-enabled headphones. Insert that into the jack and "your computer will think there's a microphone there when there isn't," Mitnick writes. Be careful, he notes, not to let the two wires coming out of the end of your stub touch; you could short-circuit your microphone port and damage your computer.

But not every Apple device even has a microphone jack these days. And Richard George, a former technical director at the NSA who helped design President Obama's secure BlackBerry, says that mic plug trick might not be enough regardless. He says that a rogue application potentially could circumvent the fake mic and turn the real microphone on anyway. George notes that verifying that attack would require software testing he hasn't done, but he warns that the mic stub mostly offers a false sense of security.

"If you’re talking easiest target then that would work—any difficulties, they move on to the next guy," George says. "But if you’re actually targeted, no, it won’t protect you."

The Mac Microphonectomy

For your laptop, a more surefire approach is to physically disconnect your microphone altogether, says iFixit's Wiens. Start by using a Pentalobe screwdriver to take out all the screws on the bottom of your Macbook's case, then open that bottom panel. Locate the small flat black cable pictured to the right. You can use a spudger, a pointed tool designed to allow for delicate electronics fiddling, to flip open the retaining flap on the cable's socket. (This is also described in step 31 of iFixit's guide to replacing the microphone.) Then use the spudger to gently coax the cable out.