The Rise Of Keystroke Loggers

Scams

from the they're-everywhere dept

There have been lots of stories about scammers using keystroke logger programs to get info from people. Last week everyone was talking about a company that was advertising (by spam, of course) the ability to send out an electronic greeting card to anyone you knew – that would secretly install just such a keystroke logging program. What’s just a little bit scary was how many people seemed to think that was kind of a cool idea (apparently, people hate being spied on, but the idea of spying on others doesn’t seem so bad…). However, it’s pretty clear that scammers are making sure that just about any “public” computer has some logging software somewhere – so you should be extra careful when using a computer that is not your own. Security companies say they’re seeing a lot more of these programs, and they’re getting sneakier in how they get installed. As for the electronic greeting spyware scam – so far, investigators say that it was a complete scam, and there doesn’t appear to be any such spyware available from the spamvertised site.