Beware of this keystroke monitoring program

Dec 26, 2006 13:39 GMT  ·  By

Many users are trying to protect themselves against viruses, worms or other malicious files by installing an antivirus solution meant to eradicate all the infected information on a computer. Because the number of infections is increasing every day, the antivirus developers are working hardly to create powerful solutions to defend users' systems.

Most viruses are detected by the antivirus, but there are more infections that can cause us trouble: worms and Trojans. In this article, I'll tell you about a dangerous file that can make your personal informational available to malicious people. Password Stealers are a part of the Trojan category, being created especially for keystroke recording. This means that all you type is recorded by the application and saved on the computer or even shared with its owner by sending it through email or uploading it on a HTTP/FTP server.

Imagine that after your information is sent from your computer, all your personal data is accessible by any person, including bank or credit card information, passwords or email messages. Because new solutions are created every day, the antivirus solutions are updated periodically but sometimes, it's not enough to protect a computer.

McAfee Antivirus is one of the antivirus solutions that contain a powerful detection engine for password stealers, tiny tools that can record every password or even every keystroke of your computer.

"McAfee Avert Labs recently added detection for a newcomer distributed over the Skype VoIP network. Named PWS-JO, it captures all keystrokes, saves them to a local file and contacts a remote website - hopefully no longer accessible - to send them to. This new example illustrates a new variety of attack vector (in this case a VoIP client), no longer limited to viruses, spammed email or malicious webpages for distribution," Francois Paget said on the McAfee official blog.