Keyloggers, a short word for Keystroke Logging, is a very scary system that hackers can use to secretly monitor and capture all keystrokes, mouse clicks, passwords, visited web-pages and launched applications; tracks received and sent e-mails and lots more. It can even takes screenshots of the computer activity! Keystroke logging can be achieved by both hardware and software means. Hardware key loggers are commercially available devices which come in three types: inline devices that are attached to the keyboard cable, devices which can be installed inside standard keyboards, and actual replacement keyboards that contain the key logger already built-in. If you search “keyloggers” in Google, you’ll find tons of results. There are free keyloggers and also paid keyloggers which offers much more advanced keylogging system.
You will not notice the presence of such program. It is invisible in the Task List (when you press Ctrl-Alt-Del). It will not show in Task Bar, let alone your Desktop. It does not make any noise, your system will not slow down as in the case of spyware. But the key logger silently records all the keystrokes and puff — before you know it, your password has been changed and your credit card number has been used to make fradulent purchases.
Some people use keyloggers for good purposes and some abuse it. That’s why we need to learn how to beat the keyloggers in order to protect our information from being stolen. If you think you don’t have keylogger on your system, then it might have one. You can only be sure that you are safe from keyloggers after you’ve read this article.
Web Based On Screen Keyboards
Some website such as Citibank has an on-screen javascript keyboard which you can use your mouse to click the character. This way, you can avoid using your keyboard. There is no need to install anything because everything is loaded from the website. If you’d like to implement an on-screen keyboard on your website, please visit the links below.
1. JavaScript Virtual Keyboard by Dmitry Khudorozhkov.
2. Javascript VirtualKeyboard by WingedFox.
- In my opinion, WingedFox’s Javascript VirtualKeyboard is much better than Dmitry’s JVK.
Program On Screen Keyboards
If you want to use an on-screen keyboard on a website but the on-screen keyboard is not available, you can download and use program type of on-screen keyboard. Usually the on screen keyboard program is very small in size and free to use.
1. Neo’s SafeKeys
- Neo’s SafeKeys is only less than 8KB. You type your password by clicking each button on the keyboard of this application (with your mouse). Your password will appear, letter by letter, in the text box at the bottom of the window (within a “******” password mask). Select the text with your mouse and then drag-drop it onto the password box on your online form. Good thing about Neo’s SafeKeys is the utility changes width and height each time, as well as its placement on the screen (to fool mouse-loggers, buttons will always be in different positions each time you use the program). Nothing is stored in the clipboard (clipboard loggers cannot save the password). You can use upper-case letters and symbols (such as !@#${}) by pressing the CAP button – no matter how complex your password is, the utility can type it.
2. MiloSoft Virtual On Screen Keyboard
- A simple on screen keyboard.
3. Click-N-Type virtual keyboard
- You can choose a from a few different types of keyboard layouts.
4. Mouse Only Keyboard v1.4 (MOK)
- To avoid key loggers you can enter the password using only the mouse. This method protects you even against hardware keyloggers, or other keyloggers not supported by MyPlanetSoft Anti Keylogger. When the program is started, it deactivates all system-wide clipboard viewers, so you can safely copy passwords around different applications.
Important note: Please do NOT use Windows’ On-Screen Keyboard. It is pretty useless and keystrokes will be captured by keyloggers.
Encrypt Keystrokes
Another way is to encrypt your keystrokes at the keyboard driver level, deep within the operating system. So no matter what you type on your keyboard, the keylogger only records encrypted characters.
1. QFX KeyScrambler
- When the encrypted keystrokes reach your browser, KeyScrambler then decrypts them so you see exactly the keys you’ve typed. Keyloggers can only record the encrypted keys, which are completely indecipherable. There are 3 versions of KeyScrambler and one of them is free. The free version of KeyScrambler can only protect your logins on all websites. If you want more advance features, you have to purchase the professional or premium edition.
2. I Hate Keyloggers
- I Hate Keyloggers will disable this hook mechanism so the text will never reach the key logger program. Consequently, it will break some other programs that rely on this hook mechanism, but I Hate Keyloggers provides a hotkey combination to quickly disable or enable typing protection.
Detect Keyloggers (Anti Keyloggers)
There are programs that can detect some but not all keyloggers. So I’d recommend you to try all of them. Please take note that hardware keyloggers cannot be detected by software below. Please do not depend on anti keyloggers so much because there will always be new techniques which anti-keyloggers can’t detect.
1. SnoopFree Privacy Shield 1.0.5
- SnoopFree Privacy Shield is not another scanner product. It’s a powerful shield that guards your keyboard, screen and open windows from all spy software. The way it works makes it virtually impossible for any spy program to work on your computer.
2. MyPlanetSoft Anti-Keylogger v1.5
- The world’s smallest fully functional anti keylogger. Deactivates all existing system-wide keyloggers. Absolutely free. Ideal for use in any public environment such as internet cafes. No installation required, just download, unzip and run. Serves also as anti clipboard logger.
3. KL-Detector v1.3
- Use KL-Detector to find out whether your activity is being recorded without your knowledge. It claims that it is designed to be able to detect all keyloggers. And it’s free.
4. PSMAntiKeyLogger
- PSMAntiKeyLogger is a real-time protecting tool which protects you against not only Keyloggers but also Screen/Form capturers. It can be compared to SnoopFree except that it is a bit outdated.
Anti-Virus, Anti-Trojan and Anti-Spywares will detect keyloggers by signatures. As for firewall, it doesn’t stop keyloggers from logging your keystrokes but it can prevent the keylogger from automatically “sending” the logs to the person who installed the keylogger. Also do take note that hardware keyloggers can’t be detected by any of the software above. So you must be extra careful and always use the on-screen keyboard when you’re using a public computer.
Phew! Finally I’m done writing about defeating keyloggers… It has taken me whole day to write this!
This thread may be dead, but here is a good suggestions.
Store your passwords in an encrypted file on a USB drive. Then ppen your “password file” when you need a password, and copy-paste as necessary.
I do this for usernames AND passwords. I realize that any “keylogger” that takes screen shots will still be able to catch the username, but regular keyloggers won’t, and NO keylogger will be able to catch the password because all the host returns is black dots or asterisks or whatever.
It may be a bit lo tech, but sometimes that works best.
very good information tells how to protect our pc from keyloggers.
Would someone care to explain how *ANY* on screen keyboard will prevent a program that takes screenshots for getting your password? PsuedoCode to still get your password:
Wait for a mouse click.
When it happens, get a screenshot.
They will be able to see what key you’ve entered seeing what letter your mouse cursor is over
Its interesting to learn the tricks behind keyloggers.Thanks for that info.
Oh and i forgot to say,thanks for all the info on defeating keyloggers!
I tried snoopfree,it instantly detected a keylogger,and i had the option to delete it,I never felt so powerful in my life! :D
I’d recommend snoopfree anytime.
I tried the Hashpass. This works great.
Or how about an on screen keyboard that allowed you to switch around key values (ie, make the ‘a’ key on the keyboard be an ‘e’) so only you knew what key was what. I’m not very computer savy but it seems like that would help defeat both key loggers and screenshot loggers, no?
Great article. But as you say, the onscreen keyboards still leave us exposed to screenshot loggers.
Is it possible to store passwords on a portable flash drive in which the passwords are visually encryped? (ie the password would just show as xxxxxxx). The xxxx could then be pasted into the appropriate spot without any visual clues to the actual password.
I imagine you could also have a system for listing the gibberish passwords so you could remember what was what and one could also password protect the flash drive itself too.
Would that work? Does such a thing exist? I’m going to be travelling quite a bit and will need secure access once in a while.
There is also an excellent utility to safely enter passwords on web sites bypassing keyloggers called HashPass. Find it at kagi.com/fantasy
It is built with protection against keyloggers, mouseloggers, screen capture as well as clipboard loggers so despite being similar to Neo’s SafeKeys goes much further. I rank it as number one as it uses a well conceived and well implemented concept. With zero effort you can safely enter a password up to 128 characters long! I have not seen anything like that before and can only recommend it, especially when travelling.
So what are screen capture keylogger doing anyway? Do they actually capture the screen each time you click somewhere? If so, then combined with a keyboard keylogger there would be no simple way to avoid the password from being found. Is this correct?
Also, I’ve been using MojoPac (mojopac.com) with my success, but I would love to know what to do when I don’t have it. An article on MojoPac:
ryrw.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-travel-invisibly.html
Thanks,
Fuzzy
I think keylogger is a pretty cool way to find out if someone in your home is doing something inappropriate. What if your son or daughter is doing something bad online? Or what about your wife for that matter? Invasion of privacy is always wrong but when it comes to kids it may be the only way to find out what’s going on in their lives.
Yes I am sure because I’ve installed a keylogger on my own computer, and whenever I click on any keys in on-screen keyboard, it doesn’t log the real keys. You only need to worry about screen capture keylogger.
It’s not about who has the point and who is pointless. Most important is to test what you found. Never believe anyone so easily until you’ve tested it yourself.
Most of my articles are tested by myself and proven to work. If it don’t work, I won’t post it.
are you sure those on-screen keyboard can block the software keylogger with screenshot function?
if yes, you have the point and i pointless. otherwise, any atempts to say about anti-keyloggers is pointless and trivia!
Another method in preventing keylogging programs from capturing keystrokes is to use automatic form fillers.
ni foto tfort
hey man, could you send me a key gen for windows office 2007 on vista. i would appreciate it
Thanks rocky, but the method you share will not fool keyloggers that capture screenshot.
With the captured keys + screenshots, the hacker could figure out your password in just a few tries.
The best way is still to use a on-screen keyboard. Download size is very small and you don’t to click around and typing random characters to “try” to fool the keylogger.
Here are ways to avoid keyloggers without using a third-party software; just use common sense:
technospot.net/blogs/how-to-avoid-keyloggers-by-scramble-keystokes-on-public-computers/
cheers,
rocky
thanks for the article!
very nice article
Don’t understand what is your point anyway…
unless the crackers are all statisfy with their keylogger…or i should say that i’m out of this topic “how to beat keylogger…”
but i think you should carefully phrase that statement,
“I AM SURE it will safeguard your password with a
@are you sure, I AM SURE it will safeguard your password with a “non-personal pc”. An on screen keyboard is all you need.
a non-personal personal computer? I never heard that one before..
This is one of the best articles I can find on how to beat Key Loggers. Traditionally I am using Keylogger killer. It’s very small in size and scan will be completed instantly. Only problem is it’s a sharware.
download.com/Keylogger-Killer/3000-2144_4-10221487.html
-Sharath
I doubt all these tools work to safeguard my password if i have to log on net account with a non-personal pc!
good job ,well writen
Thanks for the article…
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