The Advancement of the Keylogger

A keylogger is a program that runs in your computer’s background secretly recording all your keystrokes. Once your keystrokes are logged, they are hidden away for later retrieval by the attacker. The attacker then carefully reviews the information in hopes of finding passwords or other information that would prove useful to them.  For example, a keylogger can easily obtain confidential emails and reveal them to any interested outside party willing to pay for the information.

Keyloggers can be either software or hardware based.  Software-based keyloggers are easy to distribute and infect, but at the same time are more easily detectable.  Hardware-based keyloggers are more complex and harder to detect.  For all that you know, your keyboard could have a keylogger chip attached and anything being typed is recorded into a flash memory sitting inside your keyboard. Keyloggers have become one of the most powerful applications used for gathering information in a world where encrypted traffic is becoming more and more common.

As keyloggers become more advanced, the ability to detect them becomes more difficult. They can violate a user’s privacy for months, or even years, without being noticed.   During that time frame, a keylogger can collect a lot of information about the user it is monitoring.  A keylogger can potential obtain not only passwords and log-in names, but credit card numbers, bank account details, contacts, interests, web browsing habits, and much more.  All this collected information can be used to steal user’s personal documents, money, or even their identity. 

A keylogger might be as simple as an .exe and a .dll that is placed in a computer and activated upon boot up via an entry in the registry. Or, the more sophisticated keyloggers, such as the Perfect Keylogger or ProBot Activity Monitor have developed a full line of nasty abilities including:

·         Undetectable in the process list and invisible in operation

·         A kernel keylogger driver that captures keystrokes even when the user is logged off

·         A remote deployment wizard

·         The ability to create text snapshots of active applications

·         The ability to capture http post data (including log-ins/passwords)

·         The ability to timestamp record workstation usage

·         HTML and text log file export

·         Automatic e-mail log file delivery

All keyloggers are not used for illegal purposes.  A variety of other uses have surfaced.  Keyloggers have been used to monitor web sites visited as a means of parental control over children. They have been actively used to prevent child pornography and avoid children coming in contact with dangerous elements on the web.  Additionally, in December, 2001, a federal court ruled that the FBI did not need a special wiretap order to place a keystroke logging device on a suspect’s computer. The judge allowed the FBI to keep details of its key logging device secret (citing national security concerns). The defendant in the case, Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., indicted for gambling and loan-sharking, used encryption to protect a file on his computer. The FBI used the keystroke logging device to capture Scarfo’s password and gain access to the needed file.

How can Possible write emails now but automatically send them later?

Yes, this is possible but it does depend on the email program you use. Unfortunately, you didn’t tell us anything at all about your computer or software setup so we lack a starting point.

However, we can tell you that all full versions of Outlook from 2000 onwards had this ability. In Outlook 2007 and 2010, for example, create a new email in the usual way (click New).

Now click the diagonal-pointing arrow at the bottom right of the Options group within the Message tab. In the Message Options dialogue box, click to tick the ‘Do not deliver before’ box then use the two dropdown menu options alongside to set the required delivery date and time, then click Close. Now compose your message and click Send – the message will be sent to the Outbox folder. It will stay there until the scheduled date and time and can be edited or deleted in the meantime.

Microsoft’s various free email programs (Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail) have a Send Later option on the File menu, but it is nowhere near as flexible. Indeed, using this Send Later option merely places the email in the Outbox folder ready for sending the next time you synchronise your emails – so doesn’t provide what you want.

If you don’t have a commercial version of Outlook, and don’t wish to pay to upgrade, then consider Thunderbird: this is a free email application from the same developers that make the popular Firefox browser. Like Firefox, it can be augmented with any number of add-ons, including ones that will schedule email deliveries. To do the job you want we’d recommend the Send Later 3 add-on to go with it.