The last post about the last command got me think about security again and how people can get your password to log into your system.  Passwords on the Linux® system are one-way cryptography, so a bad guy shouldn’t be able to break it.  There is a tool a bad guy can use to get your password, it’s called a keylogger.

A key logger is a program that records every single key stroke you make.

A keyboard

Imagine someone sitting inside your keyboard and recording every command you type.  It could also record you entering your password and then it would have your password.

That’s a scary thought, right?   How do you get hit with key loggers?

They’re a virus.   Bad guys use them for more than just stealing your password, they’re also used for stealing credit card information and social security numbers.  They really want to steal money, your identification, and anything else they can sell.

They’re also often installed as a hardware addition.  The program is on a USB stick, is stuck into a slot on to your computer, and then the keylogger saves all it can onto the USB stick and waits for someone to come and get it.

If someone has physical access to your computer, they have all the time in the world to break into it.  They need the physical access to put the keylogger on, so all they have to do is walk up, slip it on, and walk away.  They do hope that you won’t find it.

If they steal the computer from you, they also have all the time in the world to get your information off of it. It’s one of the main tenets of computer security, keep your computer physically secure.  Imagine if a CEO’s laptop walked off?  CEOs have lots of information on their computers about the company, if the bad guy has it, then all that information is up for grabs.