Keylogger Protection - How to Prevent Keylogging

Keyloggers come in two kind of flavors. Hardware keyloggers are applied via the computer's bios or else through a physical device plugged between your keyboard and the computer. Needless to say that what they are after is your personal data typed in on your keyboard. Some of the more advanced keyloggers are even capable of taking copies of your desktop.

What makes a hardware keylogger stand out from its software counterpart is its ability to record even Bios passwords. So there goes your number one computer protection. A hardware keylogger is also not dependent on the computer's operating system and cannot be detected by any keylogger protection software.

To make things worse, they can be built into the keyboard itself, so the user has no way of detecting it. The latest variation are wireless hardware keyloggers which can intercept and record the wireless communication between your keyboard and your PC.

So how do we go about keylogger protection?

The easiest - but almost impossible to implement - defense would be to deny any physical access to the computer. Visual inspection of your computer is the next thing as hardware keyloggers cannot be detected by means of keylogger protection software.

Now let's move on to a much more common type of keylogger, the software variant. Just like its hardware cousin the software keylogger quietly sits in the background, not giving you any clue that it is present and recording your every keystroke. Information you enter is all saved to a file which will then be downloaded by the attacker who will scan it for useful information. Useful in the sense of passwords and personal credentials that can be traded on the internet.

These kind of keyloggers do not announce their presence so how do you go about protecting yourself?

First of all, most antivirus programs provide some basic protection against keyloggers, but if you want to be safe I would recommend you use a dedicated anti-keylogger program. As these programs are specifically targeting keyloggers, they provide much better protection against keyloggers than the traditional antivirus programs. A good keylogger protection program should also protect you while the PC is already infected by means of scrambling all your keystrokes.

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