Avoid keyloggers by avoiding the user mistakes that lead to their ability to infect phones and computers. It starts with keeping your operating system, your applications, and web browsers up to date with the latest security patches.
Always be skeptical about any attachments you receive, especially unexpected ones even if they seem to come from someone you know. When in doubt, contact the sender to ask. Keep your passwords long and complex, and avoid using the same one for different services. For all platforms and devices, from Windows and Android , Mac and iPhones , to business environments, Malwarebytes is a first-line defense against the relentless onslaught of cybercriminal attacks.
The history of the use of keyloggers for surveillance purposes dates to the early days of computers. Wikipedia details sundry uses of keyloggers in the s and early s for various purposes, including government clandestine operations. One of the most famous early incidents took place in the mids, when Soviet spies developed an amazingly clever hardware keylogger that targeted IBM Selectric typewriters in the US Embassy and Consulate buildings in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Meanwhile, Soviet embassies opted to use manual typewriters rather than electric ones for typing classified information. While various forms of keylogging have been occurring for quite some time, the boom in the creation and use of commercial keyloggers grew to significant numbers in the mid to late s with a all kinds of products quickly coming to market during that time.
Since then, the number of commercial keyloggers available for purchase has exploded to thousands of different products with varying target audiences and in many languages.
And although historically keyloggers have targeted the home user for fraud, industry and modern state-sponsored keylogging is a serious problem, in which a phishing expedition compromises a low-level employee or functionary, and then finds a way to work itself up in the organization.
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Malwarebytes Labs — Blog. Business Resources. See Content. Keylogger Keyloggers secretly record what you type on your computer. How can I tell if I have a keylogger infection? Do mobile devices get keyloggers? Data recorded from the clipboard is coupled with the associated video frames, making it clear what was copied and to where, and allowing you to easily search for relevant associated events.
Clipboard content can also serve as a trigger for alerts on potential incidents. The functionality of the Ekran System keystroke tracking software can be used in the following ways:. A simple employee activity keylogger only provides only recorded keystrokes without any way to view them within their original context. Ekran System keystroke recording software, on the other hand, is an integral part of our user activity monitoring solution. It provides additional metadata to illustrate recorded video as well as an additional means of searching for, and alerting on, suspicious events.
Keylogger tools can either be hardware or software meant to automate the process of keystroke logging. These tools record the data sent by every keystroke into a text file to be retrieved at a later time. Some tools can record everything on your copy-cut-paste clipboard, calls, GPS data, and even microphone or camera footage. Keyloggers are a surveillance tool with legitimate uses for personal or professional IT monitoring.
Some of these uses enter an ethically questionable grey area. However, other keylogger uses are explicitly criminal. Keylogger tools are mostly constructed for the same purpose. Common keylogger software types may include:. Data is recorded locally before it is transmitted online to the web server. These loggers can bypass and get unrestricted access to everything entered in your system. Hardware keyloggers are physical components built-in or connected to your device. Some hardware methods may be able to track keystrokes without even being connected to your device.
This is the most direct form of interception of your typing signals. Hidden camera keyloggers may be placed in public spaces like libraries to visually track keystrokes. USB disk-loaded keyloggers can be a physical Trojan horse that delivers the keystroke logger malware once connected to your device.
Four factors outline if keylogger use is legally acceptable, morally questionable, or criminal:. Legal keylogger use requires the person or organization implementing it to:. Consent is notably absent from this list. Obviously, this is ethically questionable for uses where people are not made aware that they are being watched.
In consensual cases, you may allow keystroke logging under clear language within terms of service or a contract. You might find legal keyloggers are in your daily life more than you realized. Fortunately, the power to control your data is often in your hands if the monitoring party has asked for access.
Outside of employment, you can simply decline permission to the keyloggers if you so choose. Non-consensual legal keylogger use is more questionable. While it violates trust and privacy of those being watched, this type of use likely operates in the bounds of the laws in your area.
In other words, a keylogger user can monitor computer products they own or made. But they cannot surveil devices outside of their ownership. This leaves a bit of a grey area that can cause problems for all involved.
Without consent, people and organizations can use keyloggers for:. Even consent that has been buried under legal jargon within a contract or terms of service can be questionable. However, this does not explicitly cross the line of legality either. Illegal keylogger use completely disregards consent, laws, and product ownership in favor of nefarious uses.
Cybersecurity experts usually refer to this use case when discussing keyloggers. When used for criminal purposes, keyloggers serve as malicious spyware meant to your capture sensitive information. Keyloggers record data like passwords or financial information, which is then sent to third-parties for criminal exploitation. Criminal intent can apply in cases where keyloggers are used to:. Once the line has been crossed into criminal territory, keyloggers are regarded as malware.
Security products account for the entire user case spectrum, so they may not label discovered keyloggers as immediate threats. Similarly to adware , the intent can be completely ambiguous. Threats of keyloggers can come from many issues around the collection of sensitive data. When you are unaware that everything you type onto your computer keyboard is being recorded, you may inadvertently expose your:. Sensitive information like this is highly valuable to third-parties, including advertisers and criminals.
Once collected and stored, this data then becomes an easy target for theft.
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