We’ve been circling around the issue about keyloggers in several posts now. Lexi even asked me what are they. I’ve given a short and succinct explanation to her but thought this might be something everyone else could use also.

What are keyloggers

Photo credit: Joshua Davis

Simply put, keyloggers allow you to monitor everything that has been typed into a computer. You see many of these advertised regularly. Usually for good (although some would say its a gray area) like parents monitoring what their children are typing or bosses monitoring computer use, spouses trying to find out what their better half is up to on their computer. Stuff like that.

The darker side, you can be duped into installing them and the information is then sent remotely to a hacker who well doesn’t even need to hack anything. They just need to wait for the report and use your logins.

That is usually software based. Keyloggers can also be hardware based where someone installs it physically in your computer. Like a phone bug.

Detecting & Removing keyloggers

The bad news is, keylogger detection won’t work on hardware based loggers. You will have to physically check your computer outside and inside. For many of us working in a home office, this is an unlikely scenario though not impossible, just highly unlikely.

The good news, some software based keyloggers can be detected with anti-keylogger software. But because loggers vary so much, often there is not a one size fits all solution. Some keyloggers are rootkit loggers – which are buried much deeper in the operating system than a general one. These are a lot harder to get rid of or detect.

Your antivirus or spyware blocker can usually detect some key loggers. But if you start suspecting something, for example you have changed your passwords and still find your web site getting hacked, suspicious activity and files. Then you might want to try something like SnoopFree or PSMAntiKeylogger to help you.

Please bear in mind sometimes some legitimate software like desktop sharing modules when you’re in a virtual conference or time tracker software that monitors your activity and logs them can trigger a false positive. But at least you are being notified. The call is yours.