Are there still keyloggers out there?

[tonynoriega]

i had a buddy bring me his laptop for some TLC, and i think he had a keylogger installed...

dont ask me how i knew, it just felt like something was tracking my keyboard and mouse movements....

i thought these were illegal in the US?

try as i might, in the 30 minutes i gave him, i couldnt find it...

[jdMorgan]

I don't think they're illegal in the U.S., but if installed by a company to monitor employees, there's likely a requirement to inform the employees. Of course, the folks who install malicious keyloggers to collect and report SSN, CC, DOB, and other personal info to servers that collect it for purposes of identity theft don't care if it's illegal or not.

I would think that telling him to run every reputable free malware scanner he can find, plus the "on-line" versions available from many security sites might turn up something, assuming your hunch was correct. The problem is, he may not know 'reputable' from 'disreputable,' which is how he might have gotten into trouble in the first place.

I'd be interested to know how/why you 'felt' you were being tracked -- Constant modem activity while doing off-line tasks? Strange disk activations? Or just eerie accuracy in targeted on-line advertising? :)

Jim

[tonynoriega]

Now i know there are other factors that could be involved, such as slow processor, memory depletion...and such...

but the keystrokes look ... hesitated... just slightly slower than my fingers.

after years of typing you get into a rythm with these things and even the slightest difference is noticable.

there were a few tasks under the taskmanager that seemed odd.

like there was a film over the lcd screen.... something capturing my every move....

ok, now im scared.

[eelixduppy]

Could always monitor your networking...see if anything is being sent out or accessed remotely.

[SwitchFX]

+1 on what eelixduppy said.

It could also be just the system if there are a lot of services running.

I can type as fast as 135-155 WPM, and sometimes the computers I own or the ones I work on at work or someone's house can't keep up with the speed.

Install one of those annoying firewalls that ask you for per file access, like Comodo. It'll drive your friend crazy, but you'll find out what the file is if it's needing connection to the net. Of course he will want to know what the files do and why they need net access.

[kaled]

Slow or erratic keyboard response is more likely due to spell-checking or other realtime software not key-logging. To test for this, try Notepad.

Key-logging is quick and simple and will not slow things down noticeably (but might cause crashes if badly written, though this is unlikely from XP onwards).

If Notepad also misbehaves, then a badly-designed process is running at too high a priority. You may be able to find this using TaskManager.

Kaled.

[grandpa]

I found my first keylogger quite by accident.

Create a text file with a simple, but unusual phrase. Save the file, then search all files using that phrase. It couldn't hurt to be disconnected from the web while you do this since the log file is usually overwritten as soon as it is sent.

If you find your phrase in two or more files, you likely have a keylogger. Then it's time to take a look at some of those processes. (I'd research the odd ones anyway)