Online Threats: Keyloggers

Keylogging, also called keystroke logging, is a method of capturing/recording user keystrokes. In short, keyloggers are basically the various tools (legal or not) used to capture or record user keystrokes mostly without the user's consent & knowledge. Keystroke logging can be software/hardware based, and they come in many different types and methods, usually ran through remote connections like in an Internet-based environment.

Illustration on how hackers apply keylogging tactics on their hacking process

Long time ago, before the existence of graphical user interface (GUI), keylogging is one method of which computering experts deal with interacting with their machines. Keylogging basically has lots of function and purpose; from problem analysis to studying how one commnicates with the computer. Sounds as though it's fairly useful, isn't it?

The problem with the world is that there are basically two types of computer users: one with ethical integrity while the other one....well, basically those computer hackers, script kiddies with malicious intent....you don't need me to elaborate further on unethical hackings & identity thefts. While keylogging is as useful as to help employers making sure that their employees doesn't do anything apart from daily jobs with the company's PC, its abilities are also manipulated by unethical users...to steal your username & passwords, credit card numbers, important information etc.
Example of a keylogging software. The opposite of it would be anti-keylogging software


While there are several methods to avoid being "keylogged", the most common protection for normal users is to configure their firewall settings to a higher level of protection & to install antispyware softwares on their computers. Since keylogger is also associated with spying user behavior, antispyware normally offers protection against those. Apart from antispyware software, there are anti-keylogging software which are softwares that warn you based on signatures & heuristics analysis when they think that a software/online program is trying to log your keystrokes, webcam, clipboard content etc. Even though some anti-keylogging software come bundled in with Internet Security software such as Kaspersky Internet Security, most security software still doesn't offer anti-logging protections. In that case, sensitive users often will rely on standalone anti-keylogger software.

Online companies often use an anti-keylogging environment called a secure socket layer (SSL) where users can safely complete their purchase/ transactions with the company. In a secure-socket-layered environment, you can notice that the webpage's hypertext protocol will depict a "https://" instead of "http://", often accompanied with socket symbols somewhere within the windows of your internet browsers. However, that doesn't mean users can let their guard down. Remember: the hackers know more than you do.


Illustration of how a secure socket layered environment looks like