Keyloggers

When I went for a vacation in the province, I have to rent to be able to use computer to check my email and other accounts. Luckily, I forgot to visit my main email... why? because that is the last time that I have opened my other accounts... It seems that I was a victim of keyloggers.

Keyloggers, a type of trojan, record your key strokes. However, keyloggers do not record mouse clicks. Since you click on the letters that the on-screen keyboard displays on your screen, this makes it virtually impossible for keyloggers to obtain any of your personal information or passwords.

Safeguarding our information online should be our priorities esp. when we are just renting computer into some internet cafe nearby. If you don't protect yourself, you could end up in a world of trouble. Because of that incident I decided to research about it and find ways to protect my account.

The first way to protect your information is to look for the latest version of spyware removal programs and antivirus software. I have save Trojan guarder (anti keylog) into my flash disk...and I run it before opening any accounts. I am not sure how reliable it is, but at least I have protection. There are also some free antivirus...AVG, Spybot, Spywareblaster, and Ad-Aware to name a few.

Secondly, is using a firewall. As addition to Windows free firewall, you can also use Zonealarm or something similar. It is free, and it is a popular tool to keep your online information safe.

Since we are also an internet cafe, we are using a router, instead of a firewall program. Routers streamline the data that passes in and out of your computer and ensure that any malicious programs are kept out of your computer. This keeps your computer safe from viruses and trojans. However, using antivirus and spyware programs is still recommended just in case something slips through.

Finally, the last way I know to safeguard passwords...is just a few tricks... One trick is to use the on-screen keyboard that should come with your PC. To use it... just click the start menu, then All Programs, then Accessories, then Accessibility, then the on screen keyboard.
Another trick is to simply type your passwords differently. For example, if your password is Bim, you could type "Bm" and then use your mouse to click in between the "T" and the "m" and type the "i". Again, since a keylogger does not record mouse clicks, it would simply see your password as "Bmi".

By the way, make sure that you choose a better password than a simple 3-5 characters. A good password consists of at least ten characters or more, and a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols(such as an exclamation point, underscore, dash...etc).