Keylogging Programs Steal Poker Password

[GrannyMae]

i used to do weekly until i got the viruses.

now, when i am done for the day, i start one of the spy scans. after dinner, i start a second. then i come to my office before bed and let the virus scan run.

i also have all my credit cards and bank accounts lined up in favorite places and at some point during the day, i go down the list and log into each for a second to make sure there is no weird activity.

over the top? maybe, but what a nightmare if you get your identity stolen or your bank account hacked into.

[uuDevil]

Yes, they exist. Fortunately I've had no personal experience, but I found some articles like this one.

Most of it is pretty technical, but I've copied a bit of it here:

[ QUOTE ]

8. PREVENTIVE MEASURES
.
We have found that keyloggers are practically impossible to track once installed. However, there are several preventive measures that can be taken.
.
1. Most Windows users should have restricted privileges by making them part of the User group.
2. The Administrator group should have very few entities, and they should have strong password policy.
3. No one should ever connect to Internet or even the internal network while logged in to the computer as an administrator. This gives network eavesdroppers carte blanche access to the machine and the opportunity to remotely install software.
4. The computer’s keyboard port should be inspected to see if a hardware keylogger is attached.
.
9. CONCLUSION
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Keyloggers are simple to write and simple to install. They are easily acquired by browsing the Internet [3, 6] or can be purchased at a modest price. Anti-keyloggers are ineffective. The best that can be done to prevent key logging is to adopt good security practices and to perform physical checks for hardware keyloggers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Keyloggers look like real threats. As suggested by RunDownHouse and in this article, at a miniumum, I'm going to stop accessing the internet while logged into accounts with administrator priveledges. I'll probably also look at other browsers.

I also found some articles that look pretty good in IEEE journals, but full text is not available online (at least not for free).

[bennyk]

Does anyone here store the passwords in the poker program? I have checked "login automatically" because I'm the only one who uses my machine.

Is this exploitable other than in person?
bk

[Jim Kuhn]

What is the easiest way to copy all bookmarks and desktop icons to the new user account? Thank you for any help you may provide!

Thank you,

Jim Kuhn
Catfish4u
[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[bennyk]

Jim,

Start > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

I think this does what you are looking for

bk

[CORed]

If you want hand histories to save to the hard drive from a non-administrator account, you just have to give the user write permission for the hand history folder (C:\Program Files\PartyPoker\HandHistory for a standard installation). If you give the user account write permission for the PartyPoker folder, player notes and upgrades will work, too.

Also note that this applys only to Windows NT, 2000 or XP Professional. Windows 9x and ME have no meaningful security, and in XP Home, all users have administrator priveleges.

[Jim Kuhn]

Thank you very much for that information!

[Vagos]

Let's say 2 months ago, someone logs into an account from another computer that had one of these key loggers on it, but then changes the password on their account shortly after. Would that matter? Or would that be irrelevent? Basically...is changing passwords frequently any kind of guard against this sort of thing?
-Andy

[StellarWind]

[ QUOTE ]
Let's say 2 months ago, someone logs into an account from another computer that had one of these key loggers on it, but then changes the password on their account shortly after. Would that matter? Or would that be irrelevent? Basically...is changing passwords frequently any kind of guard against this sort of thing?

[/ QUOTE ]
Losing a password to a keylogger is like having your house key stolen. Changing the locks (password) is very effective *if* you manage to do it before your house (account) gets cleaned out.

Note that the first thing a password thief may do is change your password to keep you from interfering.

Loss of a password that protects a computer (instead of an online account) may result in installation of malicious software that lets the intruder back in at a later time.

The most important thing you need to know is that changing passwords frequently is a good idea. Not a panacea, but a very good idea.

[Vagos]

Thank you Steller, helpful post.
-Andy