Ever wondered how all of a sudden you loose your social accounts, bank details and other valuable information to Hackers? You can't remember giving out OTPs or card number over the phone, you also can't remember logging in your accounts via a public computer. There are variety of ways your information can be stolen.
Today I'll show you one of the common ways these things happens. "The Keylogger"
What Is A Keylogger And How Does It Work? A keylogger is a type of spyware that can be used to track and log the keys you strike on your keyboard, capturing any information typed. Keyloggers are insidious because you don't know they're there, watching and recording everything you type.
How do keylogging activities benefit cybercriminals?
The data captured can include your personal and financial information, PIN codes and account numbers, credit card numbers, usernames, passwords, and other sensitive data all of which can be used to commit fraud or identity theft. Keyloggers can be software or hardware. Software is more common. The majority of keyloggers are used to capture payment card data you might enter online with a device. Once captured, your data can be retrieved by the person on the other end of the keylogger program.
Many keyloggers have root-kit functionality. That means they're hiding in your system. These so-called Trojan-spy programs can track user activity including keystrokes and screenshots, save the data to your hard disk, and forward the information to cybercriminals.
Types of Keyloggers
Keyloggers can either be Hardware or Software based depending on which part of the computer they're embedded into. These includes the following;
1. API-Based Keyloggers
API-based keyloggers are the most common. These keylogging software use the keyboard API (Application Programming Interface) to record your keystrokes. Each time you press a key, a notification is sent to the application you are typing in so that the typed character would appear on the screen. API-based keyloggers intercept these notifications and capture each of them as a separate event. The logs are then kept in a file on the system hard drive for easy retrieval by the hacker.
2. Form Grabbing-Based Keyloggers
Instead of logging each keystroke separately, form grabbing-based keyloggers log the data from your web forms upon submission. Just like the API-based keyloggers, they intercept the submission notification to log all the information you have entered in the form. This can include your full name, address, email phone number, login credentials, or credit card info. The whole process takes place as soon as you hit the “Submit” or “Enter” button and is completed before your form data is submitted to the website.
3. Acoustic Keyloggers
Acoustic keyloggers are very complex and are therefore rarely used. They utilize the principles of acoustic cryptanalysis to record your keystrokes on the hardware level. No matter what keyboard you’re using, each key on it has a unique acoustic signature. The differences are subtle, but individual signatures can be determined by analyzing a sample through a variety of statistical methods. However, not only is this very time-consuming but the results might not be as accurate as with other types of keyloggers.
4. Hardware Keyloggers
Hardware keyloggers are devices that use the circuitry inside a keyboard to log keystrokes. They are most often built into the keyboard, although they are also available as either a USB connector (for personal computers) or a Mini-PCI card (for laptop computers). Rather than relying on software to store the logged keystrokes, all records are kept in the internal memory of the device. However, for this keylogger to work, the hacker must have physical access to the keyboard in order to retrieve this information.
5. Kernel-Based Keyloggers
Kernel-based keyloggers inhibit the core of your computer’s operating system (also known as the kernel), which makes them very difficult to detect and remove. They hide inside your operating system and record your keystrokes as they pass through the kernel. Because they are more difficult to write, these keyloggers are rarer than other software-based varieties. They are distributed via rootkits, malicious software bundles that can bypass your computer’s kernel and target the hardware.
How to Avoid Keylogger
As with all other cyber threats, the best way to stay safe from keylogger attacks is to use the best antivirus software and run regular scans of your computer.
To ensure that you’re protected against the latest threats, you should configure your antivirus program to automatically download virus definition updates. Finally, don’t open any links or attachments included in suspicious emails as they might initiate an “invisible” download of a keylogger, spyware, adware, or some other type of malicious software.
How to Remove Keylogger
If you suspect that someone may have installed a keylogger on your computer but your anti-malware software isn’t detecting anything, you may be able to find it in Windows Task Manager. Simply launch Task Manager and take a close look at the list of active processes to see if there’s anything out of the ordinary. If necessary, ask someone tech-savvy to help you with this step. You can also check your system’s firewall for any suspicious activity, such as unusual amounts of incoming and/or outgoing data.
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