Digital Common Sense

November 28, eWeek — Malicious keyloggers run rampant on net. Keylogging programs are the epitome of online stealth, and they’re also a mushrooming problem on the Internet. Reports of new keylogging programs soared higher this year, as part of a wave of multifunction malware with integrated keylogging features, according to VeriSign Inc.’s security information company iDefense Inc. The programs often evade detection by anti−virus tools and can be difficult to detect once installed, experts warn. More than 6,000 keylogging programs will be released by the end of this year, according to projections by iDefense. That’s an increase of 2,000 percent over the last five years, company officials said. Keyloggers have been around for years and are also sold as legitimate applications −− often as monitoring tools for concerned parents or suspicious spouses −− according to Ken Dunham, director of malicious code at iDefense, in Reston, VA. Malicious keyloggers are increasingly part of modular programs that contain Trojan horse, spamming and remote control features, as well, Dunham said. Anti−virus companies have developed signatures that will stop many of those programs before they can be installed, but new programs with unique signatures are readily available from malicious code download sites.
Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1893515,00.asp

Filed by Ken at 5:52 pm under InfoSec