by Times of Oman

MUSCAT — Do you know that every action you perform on your PC (personal computer), be it chatting with friends, writing business or personal e-mails, accessing your bank account on the Internet or storing passwords – could be tracked by a third person? Believe it or not, this is reality, courtesy modern technology, says Tariq bin Hilal Al Barwani, a well-known Omani IT expert.

“You are not only robbed off your privacy, but all your information and data are at risk. All this is done through a program known as keylogger, which helps one keep tabs on a user’s keystrokes by logging on each one of them, thereby providing access to the victim’s information. These programs are widely available on the Net for download,” Tariq, who is always on the prowl to find better ways to enhance and upgrade his Net skills, told the Times of Oman yesterday.

Moreover, advanced versions of logging programs also monitors the Net activity by logging the addresses of visited homepages. It monitors time and title of the active application; even text in edit boxes and message boxes are captured.

It is an invisible easy-to-use surveillance tool that records every keystroke to an encrypted log file. The log file can be sent secretly with e-mail to a specified receiver.

“Keylogging programs are not very new. Earlier, users were required to install the program physically on the targeted PC. Also, logged information would only be present on the victim’s PC, which means the person who installed the software needed to have access to the victim’s PC in order to collect the log. It wasn’t that easy. Today, there are sophisticated ways where the installation can be made virtually — over the Net — and the same applies when collecting the logs. No physical interaction with the target PC is required,”

How does it work? Tariq Hilal Al Barwani, a local IT expert, explains: “Keylogging programs are embedded within Spyware applications. Spyware is defined in webopedia.com as any software that covertly gathers user information through the user’s Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet.”

“I avoid entertaining free software for I believe there is no such thing as free lunch,” Al Barwani noted. Once the keylogger is activated, it will monitor and log all the keystrokes and then accordingly transmit the information back to the author.

A variety of software is available online to remove Spyware and Keylogging programs. Check them out at www.downloads.com or www.hotfiles.com. Most of the software will find and remove the Spyware and Keyloggers from your system. Microsoft also has a nifty program called Microsoft AntiSpyware that can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com. “I tried myself and found them good for the task. My advice, however, is to change your passwords and critical information as soon as you get rid of the keylogging and spyware programs because you never know who’s using your identity now,” says Al Barwani.

Keyloggers and spyware are a serious threat to your computer’s security and personal privacy. A large number of users connected on the Internet may be monitored and spied on today. Make sure you’re not one of them. Take the necessary precautions — or actions if already targeted, he warned. Defending against them is essential for anyone accessing the Internet. The number of security problems continues to escalate. Everyone should take serious note about this and have to defend their computers.”

* If the average PC user takes the necessary security precautions, there should be so little to worry about. The Internet is a useful medium and should be used to its fullest,” Al Barwani said.


What to do

l Install an ant-ivirus and anti-spyware to protect you from viruses, spyware, etc — make sure they’re updated with the latest definition

l Install a firewall to monitor what’s coming in or going out of the Internet

l Regularly scan your PC for viruses — a weekly habit would be a good start

l Avoid downloading free stuff, and most importantly avoid porn, hacking, and mischief sites that are prone to have spywares.

l Update your operating system whenever you get the Windows Update Alert.

l Take a regular backup of you’re data — you never know when security measures in place could be defeated by sophisticated technologies.


According to Al Barwani, users surfing the web without security measures in place, such as firewall or virus protection, are easy target for spyware, virus, trojans and the like.” Most of the recent new viruses, trojans, spyware and keyloggers that are loaded onto system, will send critical information/messages of your systems status and personal information to a number of servers around the world-keeping your information exposed on the world wide web (WWW).

“Also, your PC and net surfing becomes very slow, and a number of windows will be opened (pop-up) automatically, which becomes distracting.

l All outgoing e-mails (typed from the PC) are logged.

l Websites addresses are surfed.

l Chatting will be monitored

l Usernames and passwords typed while visiting sites, Internet banking and e-mails are tracked.