How key loggers can hijack your banking password
Keyloggers are key stroke recorders which can record all keystrokes made on your keyboard! There are two types of keyloggers, hardware & software. Hardware keyloggers can be attached to keyboard, placed below keyboard or even some keyloggers comes built in with keyboard. External keyloggers are noticeable by the user, while built in keyloggers are not. There are various types of software keyloggers also, kernel based & hook based are popular. Kernel based keyloggers resides at kernel level, which gains unauthorized access to hardware (keyboard). Kernel based keyloggers can be in the form of keyboard drivers, so be careful while installing drivers from unknown sources. Hook based keyloggers, hook to keyboard using functions provided by OS & records keystrokes.
So, let it be your banking password or email account password, it can be easily recorded. Secured encrypted connection wont avoid keylogging, it secures your password after entering & secures until it travels to server. Software keyloggers can also be programmed to send recorded keystrokes to a pre-defined email ID, to upload keystrokes to FTP server or even to access & monitor log on your local machine via internet.
How to prevent from keyloggers:
Web Keyboard: Many banks provide you with online keyboard, make use of this while logging into your banking account.
Firewall: Use a firewall which alerts you when any application tries to connect to internet. Few firewalls are available for free, Comodo is one of those.
Anti Spyware: Many anti spyware softwares can detect keyloggers & cleans your PC.
Auto form fillers: Using form fillers on your browsers will avoid keylogging & also saves your time. There’s an extension called “iMacro” for Firefox, which helps you record any event you make on Firefox & playback whenever required. Get this Firefox addon at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3863
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good post man…there are many people who aren’t aware of the keyloggers.
you could have mentioned keyloggers which can be installed in the local machine and whihc works on hidden mode and whihc would would be safe from the mthods u mentioned above…lke spyware,antispyware..etc..
I have one which works like a charm..though i had dowloaded that just for the sake of curiosity..it can work in cyber cafe’s ,offcies ..
Informative post, never knew virtual keyboard provided by banks are to avoid keyloggers.
great post…..
That’s informative! Another reason why I’m apprehensive about using credit cards for online shopping/task!
Some people might misinterpret this post. Keyloggers are installed at system level.
It is NOT recommended to access your bank accounts or use your credit card in a public computer. Otherwise it is safe to use your credit card [in genuine sites signed by Verisign or any such providers] at your home/work computer [as long as nobody wants to steal your info].
@Balaji
Agreed to your points.
Would like to add few points…
Logging into banking account at your personal computer like home PC doesn’t avoid keyloggers. It can reach any computer in lot of forms. Like a spyware which gets into your PC by just visiting a site!
Verisign ensures that, your data travels securely over internet to provider’s servers. I think it cannot avoid keylogging which is happening at user’s PC.