How good are key loggers exactly?
Recently i downloaded a program that had a list of scrolls where you could type in prices for them and it would keep the prices for you. Well when the download was finished and i tried to run the program, nothing came up but instead my firewall told me that some kind of "Viewer" or something had been downloaded. It gave me the choice of deleting the "Viewer" which im guessing was a keylogger or something and the scroll program.
Anyway, i was wondering how good key loggers are, as in can they record exactly where you click and stuff like that. Even though i seemingly deleted the program and all its contents (i even permanantly deleted from recycle ben) i still kind of paranoid.
Whenever i'm entering my username and password anywhere now, i click around.
For instance, if my inforation was as follows:
Username: 1234567
Password: 1234567
i would do something like entering : 3,7 (then click before 3) enter 2 (click after 3) enter 4,6 (click before 2) enter 1 (click after 4) enter 5.
and i don't do it the same way each time. So my question is, would the keylogger be able to sense this?
2 Comments • Newest first
If you were infected with a keylogger, it would not be able to sense it.
On the other hand, if it was a RAT, you would be watched and they would be watching your clicks.
A keylogger does exactly what its name suggests: It "logs" (or records) EVERY key you press.
So whatever keys you press are recorded and sent to the hacker. The hacker can then see exactly what you typed for your passwords.
The only practical way to be sure you've removed a keylogger is to run a scanner program which is designed to find and remove things like that.
I use BOTH a regular anti-virus scanner ("Microsoft Security Essentials" ) AND an anti-spyware scanner ("Malwarebytes Anti-Malware" ) to be sure they find everything.
If you keep the scanners UPDATED regularly so they stay current with the viruses and keyloggers out there, these scanners should be able to keep you safe.
A firewall is a good defense against keyloggers because the way a keylogger works is that it collects what you've typed for a while then sends it out to the Internet to the hacker. The firewall should detect that something unauthorized is trying to make an Internet connection, which like you said should warn you something is going on.
If you don't get that indication, it means there's nothing sending anything out, meaning you probably got rid of the keylogger.