Keeping safe online

[Garreg Ddu]

Many scammers use sneaky tricks, viruses, key-loggers and similar nasty things to try to further their careers in crime. Identity theft, stealing passwords, bank account and credit and debit card details, in the UK National Insurance details and the USA Social Security numbers, and similar crimes are all helped by peoples' lack of awareness of the dangers and of how to keep safe online. This thread is here for useful tips and things to stay safe and to guard your personal details.

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[Garreg Ddu]

Key-Loggers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystroke_logging) are a type of Malware (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware) intended to lurk in the heart of a computer's operating system to capture all the keystrokes made on the keyboard and transmit them to a distant computer, with the intention of getting passwords, credit and debit card and bank account details and similar things which could be used to rob you or impersonate you. There are ways to avoid key-loggers, which should be used for all secure on-line logins and transactions.

The simplest way for Windows PC users, is to use the built in "On-Screen Keyboard". From the "Start Menu", navigate to "All Programs", "Accessories", "Accessibility" and in the list there should be "On-Screen Keyboard". When you start it by double clicking on the entry, a small picture of a keyboard, which should match the country code for which your PC is set-up, will appear on screen. A small message window with information about the limitations of the program will appear as well. All you need to do then is place your cursor in the area where you wish to type, then click on the "On-Screen Keyboard" and using your mouse or other pointing device click on the characters you wish to enter. Be aware that if the item you are entering is concealed, such as "*" in a password field, that you will not see the characters you actually entered. Things like "Shift", "Shift Lock", "Ctrl", "Num Lock" and similar keys all work in the same way as well. If you use your normal keyboard while the on-screen keyboard is displayed, you will see the displayed characters change when you press "Shift" or similar keys.

There are more features available, which may be explored using the "Help" Menu option.

[De Master Yoda]

To detect and remove key-loggers you need what is called an anti-rootkit. There is an excellent free one called "sophos" In the link below.
Many anti-virus programs will not detect or remove a key-logger, so it is wise to do a scan with the program below.

http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.html

A good free Anti Virus program is http://www.threatfire.com/download/