There are many malicious threats that can potentially infect your computer such as Malware, Adware, and Trojans. Some of them can be a nuisance – causing ads to pop up all the time or redirecting you to spam web pages all the time. Some of these can be highly malevolent in nature, perhaps one of the worst forms being the key logger.
Key loggers broadly can be split in to two major types. A hardware type which is a component actually installed inside your keyboard, or the software virus type.
While you have great cause for concern if someone has gone to the trouble of putting a hardware key logger in your pc, these days it is perhaps the software virus kind that is all the more worrying for the average computer user. Because they are so freely and cheaply available anyone with an internet connection has the potential to be a victim of this crime.
The crime can be of great concern due to the invasion of one’s personal privacy. Such software can provide the criminal with details of all documents viewed, websites visited, passwords used and access to all online accounts such as email, social networking and perhaps most worryingly Online Banking. Not only is your privacy invaded but this could lead to one of the great fears of modern day life – Identity theft.
Once a thief has your identity they may open accounts in your name, setting up mobile phone accounts, loans and credit cards and generally using your name to run up lists of bills. The effects wreak havoc in the lives of the victim who is forced to spend large amounts of time and money in an effort to try to prove their innocence. Victims must give up working hours, or valued time with friends or loved ones in order to attempt to clear their name.
In many cases a Key logger may sit on an individual’s pc for years and may never be noticed. If the victim leads a typical modern life with a lot of time spent online then it is easy to see that untold damage could be done with just a few hours of key logger data never mind several years of it.
Some viruses have clear signs such as the annoying pop ups, processes slowing down or removal of important files. A well designed key logger will leave almost zero trace. Traces they do leave are often very well disguised.
The Malware industry including Key loggers is a game of Cat and Mouse between the cyber criminals and the IT industry. Because this threat is particularly nasty anyone that spends any deal of time online needs to take the following precautions:
Use the best antivirus software available
Choose a well known brand. When downloading antivirus software be very careful where it comes from as some fake antivirus software actually contains viruses.AVG Norton and Avast are well known and very effective. Trying to save a couple of dollars on internet security is a false economy.
AVG is recommended as its frequent updates help you stay one step ahead, and the scans run nicely in the background without hogging too much of your computers resources.
Always download updates as soon as possible
This includes updates to your virus software, but also your operating system, web browser and any other program that you run. Hackers can take advantage of gateways or loopholes found in these systems and updates are often released to fix such issues when identified.
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