Big Brother On The Keyboard

They Can See What You're Typing...at All Times
Over the last few years, there's been an explosion in the use of keyloggers. Keyloggers are software or hardware that captures your keystrokes, stores them and sends the captured data to a third party through your Internet connection. Creepy huh?
That's not all: Keyloggers can also store and transmit additional information, such as your screen images.
No one knows the number of PCs that are compromised with keyloggers, but experts warn the problem is growing exponentially. Computer security firm McAfee estimates the number of keylogger-infected PCs has grown by 250% since 2004. Another survey showed that 17% of PCs in corporate environments were infested with keyloggers.
If your PC is infected with keylogging software, or if a keylogging device is secretly installed, everything you type is recorded. That includes your emails, chatroom activity, instant messages, Web addresses and Internet searches. Even emails or documents you create and later discard are saved.
Most PCs are infected with software keyloggers. You just have to visit a website, open an infected file, or click on a pop-up ad that contains "active" content such as ActiveX, Java Applets and your PC can be compromised.
Hardware keyloggers aren't as common, because someone needs to actually install the device on your PC. There are three main types: inline devices attached to your keyboard cable, devices installed inside a keyboard, and replacement keyboards that contain a built-in key logger.
Law enforcement agencies apparently use hardware keyloggers much more frequently than software keyloggers, presumably because they're impossible to detect with anti-virus or anti-spyware software. In a recent case, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration used a hardware keylogger to retrieve passphrases for PGP (a popular encryption program) and Hushmail (a secure email service).
Fortunately, you can protect yourself from keyloggers by taking some fairly basic precautions:
Keep your anti-virus software up-to-date
Use a program such as Lavasoft (http://www.lavasoft.com/ ) to regularly scan your PC for keyloggers and other "spyware"
Use a firewall such as ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonealarm.com/ ) to monitor outgoing traffic from your PC. If you see a program trying to communicate with the Internet that you don't recognize, investigate further to make certain it's not a keylogging program or other spyware
Visually inspect your keyboard and its connection to your PC. If you have any reason to suspect that it might be compromised, buy a new keyboard - they're very economical
Click here for more information on how to protect your privacy, on and off the Internet.