4. Keyloggers – What do they report back?
Posted By Mimenta on January 24, 2010
The log files or the output from the keylogger are not as easily read as I would have expected. One of the main reasons is the way we type. We tend to make lots of mistakes and corrections as we change our mind, finding a better way to express ourselves. Every change, every spelling correction, every delete, insert and backspace is recorded. A small one sentence comment can become half a page if someone is indecisive. Each keylogger software seems to take a different approach to logging the activity it records. All of the keylogger software we surveyed, except the free version of Perfect Keylogger showed all the system (non-character) keys in their logs.
This is useful if you want to see whether the user typed the Backspace key a few times to delete something in an email window before actually sending it along. For example if an employee knows that the Internet filter will trip off at a certain phrase, so re words it to bypass the filters. Unfortunately, recording all such keys makes the logs tough to read. To resolve this problem, Perfect Keylogger gives you the option to choose whether to include non-character keys in its logs. Keylogger Pro’s approach to system keys is less elegant: you have to toggle the display based on the log selection, so it’s not permanently on or off. Oddly, Keylogger Pro’s log doesn’t include system keys when exporting the entire log to HTML.
Of the programs we tested, only Perfect Keylogger’s free version didn’t include system keys in its activity logs. All the remaining programs tested always included non-character keys in their logs.
In addition to capturing outgoing keystrokes, Perfect Keylogger and Silent Logger record both sides of instant messaging chats in popular IM clients. Keylogger Spy Monitor does not record chats, but the developer sells other products designed for this purpose.
About The Author
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.