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The Advancement of the Keylogger
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| Wednesday, January 7, 2009 |
A keylogger is a program that runs in the background of your computer secretly records all your keystrokes. Once your keystrokes are recorded, they are hidden for later retrieval by the attacker. The attacker then carefully examine the information in hopes of finding passwords or other information that might be useful to them. For example, a keylogger can easily obtain confidential emails and reveal to any third party willing to pay for information.
Keyloggers can be either based software or hardware. Software-based keyloggers are easy to distribute and to infect, but at the same time, are more easily detectable. Hardware-based keyloggers are more complex and harder to detect. For all you know, your keyboard may have a keylogger chip attached and anything being typed is stored in flash memory of sitting at your keyboard. Keyloggers have become one of the most powerful applications used to collect information in a world where encrypted traffic is becoming increasingly common.
As keyloggers more advanced, the ability to detect becomes more difficult. They can affect the privacy of a user for months or even years without being noticed. During this time, a keylogger can collect much information about the user, it is followed. A keylogger can get not only the potential passwords and log-in name, but the credit card numbers, bank account, contacts, interests, habits, web browsing, and more. All the information collected can be used to steal personal documents of the user, money or even their identity.
A keylogger can be as simple as one. Exe and. Dll file that is placed into a computer and activated at the start through an entry in the registry. However, key loggers more sophisticated, like the Perfect Keylogger Activity Monitor Probot or have developed a full range of capabilities, including the poor:
• undetectable in the list of running processes and invisible
• A kernel keylogger driver that captures keystrokes, even when the user is disconnected
• An assistant remote deployment
• The ability to create snapshots of the text applications
• The ability to capture HTTP POST data (including log-ins/passwords)
• The ability to work timestamp record use
• HTML and text log file export
• Automatic e-mail log file delivery
All keyloggers are not used for illegal purposes. A variety of other uses have emerged. Keyloggers were used to monitor Web sites visited as a means of parental control on children. They have been actively used to prevent child pornography and ensure that children in contact with dangerous elements on the web. In addition, in December 2001, a federal court ruled that the FBI does not need a place to listen to a combination of buttons on the device logging on to the computer of a suspect. The judge allowed the FBI to keep the details of its key logging device secret (citing national security concerns). The defendant in this case, Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., indicted for gambling and loan-sharking, encryption used to protect a file on his computer. The FBI used the keystroke logging device to capture Scarfo password and access the necessary files. |
posted by neptunus @ 8:10 PM
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