The Advancement of the Keylogger
A keylogger is a program that
runs in your computer’s background secretly recording all your keystrokes. Once
your keystrokes are logged, they are hidden away for later retrieval by the
attacker. The attacker then carefully reviews the information in hopes of
finding passwords or other information that would prove useful to them. For example, a keylogger can easily obtain
confidential emails and reveal them to any interested outside party willing to
pay for the information.
Keyloggers can be either
software or hardware based. Software-based
keyloggers are easy to distribute and infect, but at the same time are more
easily detectable. Hardware-based
keyloggers are more complex and harder to detect. For all that you know, your keyboard could have a keylogger chip
attached and anything being typed is recorded into a flash memory sitting
inside your keyboard. Keyloggers have become one of the most powerful
applications used for gathering information in a world where encrypted traffic
is becoming more and more common.
As keyloggers become more
advanced, the ability to detect them becomes more difficult. They can violate a
user’s privacy for months, or even years, without being noticed. During that time frame, a keylogger can
collect a lot of information about the user it is monitoring. A keylogger can potential obtain not only
passwords and log-in names, but credit card numbers, bank account details,
contacts, interests, web browsing habits, and much more. All this collected information can be used
to steal user’s personal documents, money, or even their identity.
A keylogger might be as
simple as an .exe and a .dll that is placed in a computer and activated upon
boot up via an entry in the registry. Or, the more sophisticated keyloggers,
such as the Perfect Keylogger or ProBot Activity Monitor have developed a full
line of nasty abilities including:
·
Undetectable in the
process list and invisible in operation
·
A kernel keylogger
driver that captures keystrokes even when the user is logged off
·
A remote deployment
wizard
·
The ability to create
text snapshots of active applications
·
The ability to capture
http post data (including log-ins/passwords)
·
The ability to timestamp
record workstation usage
·
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 surfaced. Keyloggers
have been used to monitor web sites visited as a means of parental control
over children. They have been actively used to prevent child pornography and
avoid children coming in contact with dangerous elements on the web. Additionally, in December, 2001, a federal
court ruled that the FBI did not need a special wiretap order to place a
keystroke logging device on a suspect’s computer. The judge allowed the FBI to
keep details of its key logging device secret (citing national security
concerns). The defendant in the case, Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., indicted for
gambling and loan-sharking, used encryption to protect a file on his computer.
The FBI used the keystroke logging device to capture Scarfo’s password and gain
access to the needed file.
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