Type Text with your Mouse to increase security
Keyloggers record anything that you type and where you type it on your PC in a log file. This file can be a physical file on the computer itself, or memory of a hardware keylogger for example.
Depending on the keylogger, the data can be retrieved remotely or directly on the local system.
The keylogger contains all data that you type, including web addresses, passwords, emails, and documents.While it may take some time to parse the data, all relevant information can be found eventually on it.
The chance that your home system is infected by a keylogger is rather slim especially if you are a careful user who has some experience when it comes to computer systems and security.
The real danger lies out there in the real world and they go by the name public computers.It is difficult to find out if a keylogger is installed on a public computer system, especially if you have limited rights on it.
You cannot check for suspicious programs for example, or check for hardware keyloggers.
Safekeys is a small software that does not need to be installed which makes it an ideal application for these situations. It displays a virtual keyboard on your screen and you can use the mouse to type the asterisked password in. It supports all the characters that are normally located on a real keyboard.
The so created password is displayed in the Safekeys software and you have to mark and drag and drop it to the password field on the website or application that you want to use.
Please note that while it may protect against text logging keyloggers, it may not offer protection against other forms. A keylogger that records mouse movement and takes screenshots, or even a video, will still record all the important information.
Windows ships with its own on-screen keyboard as well that you can run for that purpose. Useful if you cannot connect Flash Drives to the system.
To run it, do the following:
- Use Windows-r to bring up the run box on the system. If it is blocked, click on the start menu or open the start screen.
- Type osk.exe and click on the result to open the Microsoft On-Screen Keyboard.
Now Read: How to identify keyloggers on public PCs
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Thanks Martin for such a nice piece of software.I was really thinking for such software so that i can check my email at my college lab without being spied.
I think it is also possible that you type random alphabets between your password and then delete them by means of backspace.As a result the keylogger will detect only one press of backspace and indeed you will have deleted alot of characters.What you think?
I also want to know what other tricks one can deploy at public Pc’s besides other than portable apps such as to increase the bandwidth and to avoid the viruses especially NEWFOLDER.EXE & RAVMON.EXE which spread through USB drives.
@francois:Very nice addon ff recommended.It will be perfect companion for a portable firefox.
Yaiks!
Thanks for pointing that out francois!
It seems that there is really a need for a third party program.
Thanks Martin for pointing to this software, It looks indeed very useful.
@MiGs:
I’ve just tried the Windows On-screen keyboard.
With few lines of Python code I can easily read all the keystrokes (the app. is just simulating normal keystrokes).
I think It’s scary that it’s so easy to write a keylogger on Windows. For my part I’m now careful not to type “in the clear” my important login(s)/pass(s) on a computer which is not mine.
On my PCs (where I can install software) I’m using Key Scrambler to scramble the keystrokes
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3383
Windows has a built in “on-screen keyboard”
Start > programs > accessories> accessibility > On-screen keyboard