Keystrokes Encryption Can Prevent Majority of Keystroke Malware

It is no secret that individuals and organizations all around the world are becoming victim of keyloggers. If we go by the 2012 Verizon Data Breach report, we come across the fact that organizations of all sizes are becoming the victim of keyloggers that exist in the form of malicious codes with an aim to capture keyboard depressions. By capturing the user inputs on keyboards the authors of such codes gain access to your most vital data including credit card credentials, bank account passwords etc.

The Verizon report revealed that keyloggers intend to steal the user name and passwords associated with your online financial transactions. They act just like a spy that keeps on watching what you are typing on your keyboard without letting you know about their presence and intentions. According to the report of Verizon, keyloggers applications played a major role in almost half of the security lapse cases. Verizon stated that the stolen credentials were used to breach the security in almost 33 percent of the cases.

Know more about keyloggers:

Keyloggers are maliciously designed codes that are prepared to steal information read mainly through keyboard strokes. They can steal information also through mouse-clicks, websites visited by a user and the screen displays. Not only this, information could also be stolen by keyloggers if you have opened and closed a file. There are various ways in which this malicious program can take away the information using your keyboard strokes.

Does antivirus software help?

Most of the people believe that if they have installed antivirus software on their PCs then they are protected from keyloggers. However this is not quite true as on many occasions your antivirus fails to protect you from keyloggers. A research conducted by the students at University of Alabama-Birmingham computer forensics and security management, revealed that your antivirus software mainly protects your PC from viruses and malware but you remain open for assault from keyloggers.

The claim of antivirus software vendors that their programs can protect the user from viruses and malware looks hyped when it is placed against keyloggers. Looking at the research findings and cases of keyloggers it looks evident that antiviruses are not effective enough in protecting your data from the evil intentions of the keyloggers.

How to prevent the keystroke malware?

Many of companies and individuals rely only on the antivirus software with an assumption that they are protected from all sorts of malware including keyloggers. However, a wise chunk of them use anti-keylogger solutions to prevent cybercriminals from stealing their sensitive and vital information. Blocking keyloggers from entering into your system to steal the information is the first line of defense. Using anti-keyloggers you can keep away the phishing e-mails that can steal precious information.

Keystroke encryption applications are of great help!

Apart from the usual antivirus software, you can rely upon keystroke encryption application. These applications are designed to prevent the information from getting stolen rather than just focusing on tracking the presence of keyloggers. Usually, these applications are client-based that take over the control of the keyboard by going deep into the Windows kernel at the lowest possible layer. After taking control of the keyboard, the application encrypts the keystrokes and then allows it to go to the target application such as e-mail, word processing etc. The encryption takes place through an out-of-band channel that bypasses the messaging sequence of Windows. After the keystrokes reach the desired destination they are de-encrypted and thus keyloggers fail in their attempt to gain access to information stored on the computer.