Keyloggers hidden in our lives

Keyloggers in Our Lives - How to Identify a High Quality Keylogger?

The accelerated development of the technology in the past few years has brought with it a new reality, very innovative but also highly dangerous. This reality resulted in the development of many utilities, amongst them the Keyloggers. In the last years, the Keyloggers have become very popular tools, serving various goals. But what actually is a Keylogger?
Which capabilities were added to it with the time? Who uses it? What are its capabilities? How to identify a high quality Keylogger and where to find it? And what caused it to be so popular that even you may find it useful in the near future? What actually is the Keylogger?

A classic Keylogger is a tool that invisibility listens to the keyboard, records the typed keystrokes (e.g., passwords, composed emails, chat conversations, instant messages, etc.) and saves them for later view. Which capabilities were added to it with time? Over the years the Keyloggers have been developed in a much accelerated pace in order to keep up with the rapid pace of the development of the technology. Nowadays the basic demands from Keylogger (except for recording keystrokes) are:
• To automatically activate itself when Windows starts.
• To Record visited sites, including URL, site name and page title.
• To Record which programs ran on the computer.
• To capture snapshots – just like a surveillance camera.
• To be invisible and to allow the access to the Logs, their settings and its removal only by using a user chosen password.
• To have the ability to send the logs by email to a selected account.
• To have the ability to show you the logs in a clear, comfortable and intuitive way.

Who uses the Keylogger?

There are 3 main groups that use Keyloggers:
- Parents: Today, almost every child has access to internet.
This comes thanks to the advance in technology, but has also risks involved. Did you know that:
• The average age when the children encounter pornography in the internet is 11.
• The age of the largest pornography consumer group in the internet is between
12 to 17.
• 85% of children between the ages 6-16 encountered pornographic content
intentionally or unintentionally (most of them while preparing their homework).
• 25% of children between ages 9-17 will freely disclose their home address in the internet.
• 60% of children who committed suicide, declared their intentions online directly or indirectly.
• One in five children who use the computer chat rooms has been approached over the internet by pedophiles.
• Only 25% of youth who received sexual solicitation told a parent.

The children today are very sophisticated and most of us parents don't have the knowledge to know what they are doing behind their closed doors in front of the computer. Are they browsing to inappropriate websites, are they downloading illegal content using P2P programs that will in the future result in lawsuits of thousands of dollars? What personal information they disclose about themselves, are they talking to adults, or maybe they meet them?

- Spouses: In the survey that took place in United States in the year of 2005 which includes married couples only, 56% of the participants of the survey said that during their marriage they had at least one sexual encounter with a person that is not their spouse.

- Employers: In the survey that took place in Britain in the year 2006, 87% of the employees participating in the survey said that they surf on the internet during their work at least once a week. 73% of them said that they surf at least once a day. 23% of them said that they dedicate more time to surfing on the internet than to their work!

In the additional survey that took place in the same year answered 36% of the employers, participants of the survey mentioned that they are afraid that secrets of the company will be sent to their competitors from the company computers by their employees. 4% announced that they fell victim to the theft of company secrets by their workers from the company computers.

What are the Keylogger abilities?

The Keylogger is a very powerful tool. After you install it, it is able to run invisibly and listen to all the activities that take place in the computer. In the time of his running the Keylogger records all the keystrokes that were typed in the different software such as the email client, the Internet Explorer, Chats and immediate messages clients, Word, Excel etc. documenting the time each activity occurred. The Keylogger will also record all the URLs the user surfed to and even the sites titles. To complete the surveillance, the Keylogger will take visual pictures (screenshots) of your computer just like you installed an automatic surveillance camera. The Keylogger will also be able to send you the saved logs files by email to your email account at a chosen interval, so you will be able to view the logs even when you are at work.

How to identify if a Keylogger is a high quality Keylogger?

With development of the technology many keyloggers surfaced. Part of them with a very poor quality that could miss activities and even to be exposed! In the time of the examination of the Keylogger, it is up to you to confirm that you do not find malfunctions in the way of its action and that it fulfills the basic Keylogger demands described above. Remember, a good and high quality Keylogger will allow you to download it for a free trial period for testing. Except for the basic qualities, a high quality Keylogger will characterize in the number of additional qualities that will complete its activities such as:
- Ability to capture windows titles and the keystrokes to the software that typed in (i.e., keys that were typed in a Word document will appear separate from keystrokes that were typed in the email client software.
- Ability to record from microphone. A high quality Keylogger will also allow you to set a sound threshold, so that the Keylogger will records the microphone only when someone is speaking.
- Ability to block unwanted softwares, like P2P programs.
- Ability to block access to unwanted URL's by setting the URL you want to block, part of it or even just a keyword.
- Ability to monitor the Clipboard (Ctrl+C).
- Ability to capture the mouse cursor.
- Ability to compress screenshots to save hard disk space.

Saving the logs encrypted so no one would be able to read them without a password.

Having a high level of stealth.
It should give you the option to configure it not to be listed in Windows Task Bar, System Tray, Startup list, Uninstall list (Add/Remove programs) and start menu.

A very high quality Keylogger will also let you configure it not to be listed in Task Manager (Even in the process list – not like most Keyloggers which only let you hide them from the applications tab), and to hide its folder. In addition to give you the email delivery option, a high quality Keylogger will allow you to set it to send the logs Via FTP. The Keylogger should also allow you to set it to delete the logs it successfully sent.

In addition to giving you the email and FTP delivery options, a high quality Keylogger will allow you to set it to copy the logs to a Network Folder, even if that folder requires authentication (Very valuable to organizations having computers connected to a Network). The Keylogger should also allow you to set it to delete the logs it successfully sent. It should also allow you to view logs located in a remote computer on your network from your computer. A high quality Keylogger should let you to set it so that it will automatically delete old logs so you will not run out of free space.

A high quality Keylogger will allow you to easily change the frequency of taking screenshots from your computer. It should even let you configure it to take a screenshot on every mouse click so you won't miss any event. The Keylogger should also let you set it to stop taking screenshot when the computer is idle and resume the surveillance after detecting mouse/keyboard activity.

Another very useful option is the ability to set the Keylogger not to log windows account you do not want it to log – make sure the Keylogger you test has this option. Not everyone writes in English, high Keylogger should support logging non-English languages. And one of the most important demands - a high quality Keylogger must have high quality Log Viewer. The Log Viewer should give you a Comfortable clear viewing of the saved logs, including the option to do a search on the Logs. The Log Viewer should also include a good integration between the logs types (For example, while you are watching the Web/URL's Log, it is sometimes very essential to view the screenshot that was taken when the user surfed to some site you see in that log. A good Keylogger should give you the option to move to another log type with the same timestamp by pressing a single button).

A Keylogger should be able to Generate a decrypted logs Reports in HTML/Plain Text formats in case you will ever need to show the logs to some other person. It should support as many versions of Windows as possible, including the new Windows Vista. And finally, as said, a high quality Keylogger should allow you to download it for a free trial period without popping up the annoying "buy me" dialogs, (that most probably will expose it), while you evaluate the program and even after it expires. In conclusion, a high quality Keylogger must be an "All In One Keylogger" where all its abilities together, compose a complete surveillance system.

What caused the Keylogger to be so popular and essential that even maybe you will be assisted by it in the near future?

As we saw, the keylogger has many features. No activity on your computer will be able to evade a high quality Keylogger. Does your kid make secret chat conversations with adult strangers? Maybe even with a pedophile that searches for his next victim? Does he surf to pornographic sites? Maybe he even exposes his personal details where he is not supposed to? Does he use P2P programs, sharing copyrighted materials which could constitute a pretext to a lawsuit of tens thousands of dollars? Have you ever wondered why does your husband "work" on his computer so late at the night? Does he have a secret online lover? Have you ever wondered who is your wife's "partner" she talks with all the time? Do your employees surf on the internet instead of doing their work which you pay them for? Do they sell company secretes to your competitors?

A high quality Keylogger should give you the answers to all these questions. No activity will be able to evade from it. No undesirable activity will be able to evade from you! As said, a high quality Keylogger is an "All In One Keylogger", so just press this link to download "All In One Keylogger".

Where to find a high quality Keylogger?

As said, a high quality Keylogger is an "All In One Keylogger", so just search google for "All In One Keylogger" and you will find what you need just go to All In One Keylogger Web Site.