The term Keylogger is a combination of “Key” and “Log”. It is a type of monitoring software or monitoring hardware which is designed to record keystrokes or keyboard input made by a user. Keylogger records the user’s keystrokes input and sends them to third party or cyber criminals.
Criminals use keylogging software to steal credentials like Personal Data (including Name, Contact number, Address) Online Banking Passwords, Credit/Debit card details and social media account passwords.
Is Keylogger a threat?
Unlike other types of malware programs, Keylogger present no malicious code due to which computers deny in detecting them unless there is a Anti-Keylogger program. They are like submarines (silent killer) in cybercrimes.
Once a cyber criminal attains login credentials of a person, they can literally flip their life in just a few seconds because sometimes, access to confidential data is a bigger loss than thousand million dollars. They not only affect a single user but also leak credentials of all the users who will use it again, unless it gets detect. A keylogger may attach itself to the browser as a hidden extension and send user input data to predefined address over the internet. Keylogger, phishing and social engineering attacks are currently the main methods being use in cyber-crimes.
Users who are aware of security issues can easily protect themselves against these attacks by ignoring phishing and spam emails, by avoiding unwanted installation of apps onto their devices and by not entering any sort of personal information on suspicious websites. It is more difficult for normal internet users to detect Keylogger; the only possible method is to use an appropriate security solution, as it is practically impossible for a user to tell that a malware program has been installed on his/ her machine.
How it works:
- Keylogger is a small script that contains an algorithm which runs in the background without the knowledge of users and stores every keystroke by the keyboard.
- it then sends the stored keystrokes log file to a particular email address or a server which is previously mention in the program script.
- similar to every program there is also a “Master key” which is a combination of several keystrokes. Master key is require when we have to access Keylogger.
Suppose when you enter www.instagram.com in your browser, it’s obvious that you will enter username and password. After that, the Keylogger will send those keystrokes to the predefined address. So, someone with basic computer knowledge can easily access the username and password.
How to detect keylogger?
As we all know Keyloggers are of both types- hardware and software and to detect them there are different techniques
a) Hardware keylogger
You just need to check an unwanted USB plug-in to the CPU, Wi-Fi Router and other networking hardware devices. It looks like a USB thumb drive with an extra female USB port on the opposite side. The USB keylogger size is just 10mm (1 cm) but it can store more than 5 million keystrokes which has 5 years keystroke of a normal user.
b) Software keylogger
- Check Task Manager for the process of unknown programs and thus end them, if any present.
- Go to Programs and Features list in windows and then uninstall keylogger if presented there.
- Check browser installed extensions and also plug-in.
There is a sample image of a logs file and you can easily see how much capable it is to extract what you type on your pc.
How to protect yourself from keylogger?
- Avoid software installation from third-party websites.
- Use a virtual keyboard at the time of credential input.
- Use proactive protection systems to detect any malware program.
written by: Nikhil Mehra
Reviewed By: Sayan Chatterjee
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