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The Keylogger
and its Innovations
Keylogger, what is it? As the name suggest, it logs the
key strokes. Still confusing? Wait…let me explain in
detail.
When
you type in using your keyboard, without your knowledge
all your keystrokes are recorded with the help of a
program that is running in the background of your
system. This is called keylogger. Keystrokes recorded or
logged in this way are then retrieved by the hacker
secretly. Do you know why hackers attempt to log the
keystrokes? Simple, they would like to get information
like passwords that you used in the websites for e-mail
communication or money transaction or any other
information that proves vital to them.
Two
types of keyloggers are available. They are software and
hardware related keyloggers. Keyloggers that are
software related are not complex like hardware-based
keyloggers and at the same can be distributed and
detected easily too. Want to know how a hardware-based
keylogger works? Here you go… A small keylogger chip
would be inserted or embedded inside the keyboard that
you use. This chip contains a flash memory, which
records all information that you type-in using the
keyboard. Now-a-days, people encrypt the files to avoid
critical and valuable information from being stolen.
However, these keyloggers, which are considered to be
one of the most powerful applications, defeat the
purpose of encryption.
As the
technology advances, keyloggers have also become
advanced and thereby, detecting them has also become
hard and tricky. You might use your system without
knowing about keyloggers in your system for months or
sometimes even years together. Keyloggers logs each and
every keystroke of yours, right from usernames to
passwords, any information like credit card numbers,
bank account details, contacts, etc. With the help of
this information, a hacker can steal your personal
documents, money and sometimes your identity too. Hard
to believe! However, this is the bitter truth.
Keylogger can either be a simple .exe or a .dll file.
This is positioned in your system and when you boot your
system, keyloggers get activated. Are you aware of how
they activated? It is through an entry in the registry.
Few sophisticated keyloggers include Prefect Keylogger
or ProBot Activity Monitor. Read along to know what
wicked and horrible abilities these sophisticated
keyloggers have.
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Hidden in the process list and therefore cannot be
seen during and operation
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Logged off from the system? Still, keystrokes can be
logged using kernel keylogger
-
Remote deployment wizard
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Capable of taking text snapshots of applications
that are active
-
http post data like log-ins/passwords can be
captured
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Capable of tracing workstation usage
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Export of HTML and text log file
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E-mail log file can be delivered automatically
One of
the encouraging or heartening facts is that keyloggers
can also be used for legal purposes. You can use
keyloggers to monitor websites that your children visit,
that is, parental control over children. For example,
prevention of child pornography. Let me give you an
example where keylogger played an important role in
cornering a defendant in a case, Nicodemo Scarfo Jr. He
was accused for gambling, loan-sharing who has encrypted
all the files in his computer. To prove him guilty,
judge allowed the FBI to set a keylogger secretly. With
the help of this keylogger, FBI gained accessed to the
files they needed. In December 2001, federal court too
ruled out saying that FBI does not require a special
wiretap order for placing keyloggers. |
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