[How to] Protect yourself from Keyloggers!

[Aldun]

How to protect yourself from being Keylogged.

First of all, let me explain exactly what a keylogger is.

Keystroke logging (often called keylogging) is the practice of noting (or logging) the keys struck on a keyboard, typically in a covert manner so that the person using the keyboard is unaware that their actions are being monitored. There are numerous keylogging methods, ranging from hardware- and software-based to electromagnetic and acoustic analysis.

In other words, this means a hacker sees everything you type, including your account name and password.

I. Different Types of Keyloggers:

There are loads of different keyloggers, but I will only tell you about the most common ones here, that many hackers use for World of Warcraft.

Getting infected by a file:

This one is the most common. You download some porn, hack, image or other file, and it contains a keylogger. A good Antivirus mostly detects this but there is still a chance its (close to) FUD (=fully undetectable) and thus it gets through. Then, when you type anything, the hacker can just read this all up and use it to hack your World of Warcraft, or worse, your bank account.

How to protect yourself from this? Easy, get a good virusscanner (or two), and scan daily. Also don't go to weirdo sites or download too much porn or other files.

Getting infected by going to a site:

This one is less common, but still used. It works a bit the same as the previous one, however at this one you don't choose to download a file. Instead, you go to some site and without you knowing it installs a program -a keylogger-, on your computer. Same story as before, just scan much and don't go to untrustable sites.

Hardware keylogging:

Hardware keylogging isn't common, and is most of the time only used when the hacker is really aiming for a specific person to hack. He places an hardware keylogger at your computer, you type in your details on the computer, he gets the keylogger and reads what you typed when he opens the file connected to the keylogger.

How to protect yourself from this? Don't log on public computers, don't give others access to your computer without you being there as well, and be sure there aren't weirdo things sticking about your computer.

Family Keylogger:

A Family Keylogger is actually the same as a normal one, but this time it came on your pc because someone had access to it and downloaded it. These are mostly used for parents to watch over their children but can ofcourse still be used to keylog your family/friends. These are quite easy to see since they don't really hide theirselves; you can mostly see them at taskmanager with a name like "familykeylogger.exe" or so... Yea..


Greets,
-Aldun

[TimmeH32]

On the porn note, Use a 2.0 site for christ sake, >.< Good guide. +rep

[polarmike76]

******* great site btw timmeh32 hahaha

[Guitars595]

I got infected by Antivirus 2009 once (not sure if its a keylogger but..) it can randomly pop up from sites saying your computer is at risk blah blah blah download this for free scan. It's a nasty virus and its difficult to get rid of. Be alert for anything along those lines.

[lazerbeampewpew]

sweet thanks for the advice

[coolsmoe]

I got infected by Antivirus 2009 once (not sure if its a keylogger but..) it can randomly pop up from sites saying your computer is at risk blah blah blah download this for free scan. It's a nasty virus and its difficult to get rid of. Be alert for anything along those lines.

Use superantispyware to get rid of it. (Too few posts so can't link, but it's easy to find )

[susy]

I see, i see.
But you are missing a great part of "keyloggers" those that are used alot more.
Botnets, IRC bots, the ones that gives hacker control over your pc, and those are quite small and hard to find and easy to make your own.
Also its usually in process list, just look for something unusual in it, google the name and know what it is.

[polarmike76]

I have never heard about the hardware key logger. That's interesting.
What sort of public locations would have this (if any)?

Sometimes people attach them to library computers to steal info, sometimes they attach em to net cafe's, sometimes to lan centers.... it really depends. Just look at the end of the keyboard's cable that connects into the computer. If there's something wierd (i'm not talking about a USB to PS2 converter) attached to it, then i wouldn't trust it...

It usually looks like this...

[TimmeH32]

KeyGhost Keylogger - A hardware keylogger which captures all keystrokes to its internal memory chip. It is software free so it cannot be detected or disabled by software and installs in under 5 seconds!

When I was still at school, my friends and I ordered one of these. We tried to stick it on the admin computers but it wouldn't load up properly.