What is a Keylogger and How to Protect Yourself?

The Internet has many good things, but it is also the place where cybercriminals nest, waiting for the moment to attack any computer system that is not well protected. Through malicious code, a computer can be rendered useless forever, or even worse, it can be remotely controlled by someone to access your data.

We have recently spoken about spyware as a term that includes all the forms of code that can infiltrate your computer or your website, but today we have to talk about a specific case, keyloggers.

In this article, we will see what it consists of, what forms can be taken, and what protection measures must be taken to avoid an attack via a keylogger. Let's go there!

What is Keylogger?

Being its full name "keyboard logger", a keylogger is something as simple as a computer virus that is dedicated to saving a history of all your movements when you use a keyboard to write any text on your computer. With this, what it tries to achieve is to steal the relevant information that you can offer, for example, your credit card details, bank transactions, passwords for accessing social networks, etc. There are other cases where the keylogger creates screenshots of the entered text and sends those files to a predetermined recipient for use.

Keylogging itself is not dangerous but, as always in these cases, malicious people who take advantage of technology for their own benefit. Among the most common uses it has, we find the possibility of knowing human behavior when we type on a computer, with metrics such as typing speed that allows us to know how a certain person writes, observe the activities carried out by workers in a company or supervise the Minors' use of the Internet.

Types of Keylogger

There are two different classes depending on the form of code entry. There are keyloggers that are written in software through various processes that work on your computers in the background with the addition of being difficult to detect, and hardware-based keyloggers, less known but equal to or more dangerous than software keyloggers.

Software-based keyloggers

They are the best known and, therefore, they can be combated more easily, within the problems they cause. After collecting the desired information, it is sent through the Internet to be stored elsewhere and, incidentally, to block access to the person who owns that data. There are several examples, of which we will summarize some of the most important:

Kernel-based: 

This method focuses on inserting code directly into the operating system to access the main account and record data related to keyboard use.

API-based: 

Using this method, cybercriminals connect to the API that manages your computer's keyboard and record every movement you make while typing.

Based on man-in-the-browser (MITB) attacks: 

Similar to the Man in the Middle attack, in this case, we are facing a code that is embedded in your browser and records what you write, for example in the navigation bar, controlling URLs that you access at all times.

Based on remote access: 

Finally, this system acts by allowing external access to malicious software to upload the data and then send it by email to collect it.

Hardware-based keyloggers

For their part, although they are more difficult to use than those created in software, they can come to have such well-known forms as a USB device connected to a computer that stores all the times the keyboard is used to later analyze the data. In addition to USB, we can see them in the following ways:

1. Firmware-based: 
2. Since it runs through a computer's BIOS, physical access to the computer and root access is practically mandatory to function.
3. An addition to the keyboard: In this case, criminals place a small device in those rooms where users need to type confidential data, such as the PIN to access their checking account when they enter an ATM. With this device, they manage to register the numbers and they could already enter the bank's customer account to perpetrate the theft.
4. Other methods such as an acoustic keylogger, which analyze the sounds emitted by the keyboard to get the written text; video surveillance systems, keyloggers to analyze physical fingerprints, or embedded in smartphone sensors.

How Can You Protect Yourself Against a Keylogger?

Under normal conditions, a good antivirus like total security would be enough to thoroughly scan your computers and have a powerful firewall activated. However, as you can imagine, criminals are not standing still and their codes evolve in order to continue penetrating the systems of unsuspecting companies that do not have updated computers or other devices. In this sense, you can follow these tips to protect yourself against attacks by a keylogger:

1. Use a password manager to generate keys that are difficult to decrypt and that also fill in the access fields of the web where you want to enter automatically, making it difficult for keyloggers to know your credentials.
2. Switch to two-factor authentication to not only use the password, but a mobile phone to validate access to your account.
3. Do not enter, as far as possible, sensitive data when you are using a public computer, such as those found in libraries. If for whatever reason you have to, at least try to check that there are no gadgets plugged into the computer ports. Another good idea is to "trick" the system so that when you are about to access your online banking, for example, you first enter false credentials or characters that do not exist in your credentials. This way you could check if the data ends up being saved without your permission.
4. If you didn't already know, Windows offers a virtual keyboard for use with the mouse. In the Open the "Run" dialog box by pressing the key combination Windows + R and typing "osk.exe". This keyboard will open, allowing you to navigate and work with your computer without being detected through the physical keyboard since you will not need it.
5. Finally, and perhaps the most important of all the advice we can give, is that you take all possible precautions when browsing the Internet. Throughout the Internet, there are thousands of web pages and formats such as pop-up swarming and trying to get the data of those users who do not notice what they do. Keyloggers can appear when you enter web pages suspected of practicing phishing, when you enter pages of illegal downloads or little known by the general public, or, for example, by clicking on links of dubious origin.

Conclusion

The advancement of technology has its positive side and its negative side. We have improved our lives with thousands of tools that make our daily tasks easier, but at the cost of opening new avenues for cybercriminals, but that has a solution.

Common sense, not trusting anything or anyone, and putting barriers on your computer are the three considerations that you must take into account to avoid being attacked by a keylogger and having your life ruined, at least for a season.