Computer Security Myth: Defeating Keyloggers With Onscreen Keyboards

June 15, 2009 – 2:02 PM

I recently came upon a few articles that once again offered the computer security tip to use onscreen keyboards to defeat keyloggers. Most of these tips are suggesting to install an onscreen keyboard or make use of the default one of the operating system to defeat keyloggers while making transactions on the Internet or working with sensible data.

The theory that keyloggers can be defeated with onscreen keyboards is unfortunately a computer security myth. It is definitely true that some keyloggers, especially those that only record the keys that the user enters on the computer computer keyboard, can be defeated with onscreen keyboards.

There are however advanced keyloggers which make a screenshot of the onscreen keyboard while it visible on the computer screen and which record the mouse movements on the system. It is then a matter of simply reconstructing the mouse movement to know exactly what a user typed on a computer system.

There is only one 100% way of defeating keyloggers and that is to not use computer systems for sensitive information. That’s not always practicable and it is possible to reduce the chance that keyloggers are installed by running good antivirus programs.

Source:
http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/15/computer-security-myth-defeating-keyloggers-with-onscreen-keyboards/