Living in Cebu

In early 2006 I will be moving to Cebu, Philippines with the entire family.

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Security concerns with Keyloggers at Internet Cafes

I have a friend that has expressed concern about using Internet cafes in the Philippines to access sensitive information. His main concern is reports that some of these cafes are loaded with Keyloggers which record each key pressed for later retrieval. If you entered your username and password to access you Bank accounts this would be a concern. I always bring a notebook which I plug in so its never an issue for me.

I recently found a couple of suggestions to defeat such key loggers and will publish them here for my friends and others with similar concerns.

The fist solution is to use the Onscreen Key Board provided by Microsoft. You can usually access this via the Accessories and Accessibility option. Click on Start in the bottom left and then All Programs – Accessories – Accessibility – On Screen Keyboard. You can also put a copy of this program on a disk or other media to take with you.

To get a copy

You can find the program with a "Search" for osk.exe or the following way by going to these with you mouse and left click:

1. Start
2. Programs
3. Accessories
4. Accessibility
5. Mouse Right click on “On-Screen Keyboard”
6. Proprieties
7. Find Target

That should take you to the program, which will be highlighted, and all you have to do is copy it to a floppy or a CD etc.

The second solution of defeating key loggers reportedly comes from the US Air Force. In this method you use a word processor or text editor to type a large volume of words and letters. Do not at any time type an entire username or password as text. Just type a couple of characters at a time.

You then cut and paste the required letters to log on to whatever system you want to access. After you have entered all the required characters to logon cut a non-related bit of information into the paste log and wiping the stuff you did off the memory. Then close whatever wordprossesor or notepad you are using without saving it.

Both solutions are slow and cumbersome but if you are concerned about security then they might just be what you need.

Posted: Thursday 24th November 2005, 4:17 AM


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