Does anyone know how to tell if keystroke spyware is on your computer? Where my programs are listed, I just noticed a key with husbands name and the words log off. Does this mean something has been put on the computer?

Help, I truly am computer illiterate

I'm not sure, is it a key symbol? That may mean that file is password protected.

They say those spyware programs cannot be detected.

Thanks Sue, yes right above the start button- there's the shut down icon and then there's a picture of a key- his first name and the words log off. He is not computer literate, worse than I, so I never have suspected.

General the key implies "logoff", from what I recall (I'm using Windows XP myself).

Spyware programs are usually very undetectable for all but the most saavy. If you use Task Manager, you can usually see SOMETHING running in the Process List (Windows NT, 2000, XP) as a background task. For example, "orec32". Most users would never think to look there, but it IS theoretically possible, if you know enough.

Okay J.R. talk me through this, I am not savy- do I go to find and then look for orec?

K9love, I think J.R. was just using 'orec32' as an example. Spyware can be named ANYTHING and placed about anywhere (hidden) on your computer.

My H is a computer whiz...I am computer challenged. He put spyware on my daughter's computer several years ago, when she was younger so we could monitor her time on line--where she went, what she said on YM, etc. A month or so ago, I went into her room thinking I would check what she's been doing lately since it had been a very long time since I had 'spied' on her. Now, I know that program is on that computer, but I cannot remember where H hid it..so I searched and searched and searched, and still could not find it. Nor any indication that a spy program was even on her computer. And I KNOW it's there.

Also, I did a little checking on the computers in our computer room that H and I use...mainly the computer I use to see if there was any spyware on it. A couple of ideas for you might be to go to "search"..where the magnifying glass is, and type in spyware or net detective or something like that...another idea might be to go to the control panel and click on the icon named Add/Remove Programs and see if there is any spyware there. A competent computer person will probably think these ideas are nuts, but I did find some computer spyware on MY computer, but the interesting thing is they are on here but haven't been installed. Of course my H downloads hundreds of programs...most are necessary for his job in the computer field. So I think that is why they are on here.

Bottom line is....if your H wants to hide something on the computer, he probably can. I hope someone with computer savy can give you more info about detecting spy programs, cause I will try out those ideas too. :-)

Good luck.
Jill

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by k9love:
<strong>Thanks Sue, yes right above the start button- there's the shut down icon and then there's a picture of a key- his first name and the words log off. He is not computer literate, worse than I, so I never have suspected.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">It has to do with networking. Let's you set up multiple uses with their own desktop settings and so forth, or if the computer is properly logged onto a network, you can log it on and off to share access to the files on it with other computers on the network.

Thanks for the replies

k9love,

Here are several popular spyware programs,
keykey, netbus, BO (back orifice) etc...

Go to your start button (bottom left on desktop)
Click on FIND Click on files/folders. Type in some of those names, see what comes up.

I use KeyKey, and usually a log file at the very least pops up. Otherwise, just do a search on the FIND button for *.*log type it that way, and you should get a whole list of log files.

BTW, you only need a keystroke logger when you have children or a cheating spouse (go figure I know about these things now)

All the best,

Lolipop

Ever the curious researcher, I just HAD to solve this puzzle...you know me! So I snooped around and found several software packages that let you detect, disable and delete all kinds of spyware.

Some links to what I found:
Anti-Spy.com

Anti-Spy.com List and Links to Common Spyware

Love this One! Cheating-Spouse-Software.com LOL!!!

Spy-Software-Source.com

Hope this helps!

<small>[ August 24, 2002, 12:46 AM: Message edited by: Spacecase ]</small>

hey there...here is an initial thing you may want to try before purchasing any programs or getting toooo terribly deep into your computer:

You didn't mention what operating system you are using, but if you are using Windows 98, you can go to a DOS prompt, or use Start, Run, and type msconfig...each of the tabs tells you what loads at startup...you would want to check things like win.ini to see what programs are set to load at startup. I doubt that there's sophisticated spyware software installed that masks this. The other thing you can try is to ctrl-alt-del once, and when the menu comes up, look at all the programs that are running. If there are any you don't recognize, you might want to find out what they do.

The easiest way is to install anti-spyware software that typically will identify all known spyware types installed on the PC. Spacecase did all the research for you - maybe he works in a library or something, LOL. In fact, I bet some ppl here at MB could do a "Consumer Reports" article on spyware...

Another option would be to load a firewall program like Zone Alarm which will tell you what programs are accessing the internet. But maybe use it as a last resort, unless you can explain its presence on your PC to your spouse some other way.

There is a program my husband downloaded called "Anti-Keylogger" which will detect all possible keylogging software, hidden or not. This seems to work everytime. The one we have is a shareware version so not all the functions are there, but it still detects the spyware.

You can buy this software here;
Anit-Keylogger You may be able to get the shareware version from here as well. I think jd got our version from zdnet.com.

hope this helps

Thanks to all of you. Talk later, I need to do some checking. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

k9love,

I have the same little key icon with "Logoff BR" on my start menu.

It has nothing to do with spyware. If you right click on your task bar, select properties, then select the advanced tab. You will see a bunch of options that you can check on or off, one of which is "Display Logoff". (I'm using Windows 2000, but it is probably similar with other Windows OSs).

Its just a windows option to shut down your computer with less steps.

I have a question

why would your H put Spy material on PC are you WS
why have no one else ask this question befor giving all the information she needed.

I'm just curious because if I did that to My PC I must have a legit reason or suspect something. just asking?

Its simple.
Spyware runs in stealth mode, you can not detect it by searching task manager or startup.
The .exe file can be named anything, most likely is is named a system file name, so it will be overlooked if found during a search for executables.
The sure way to find it is to run an anti-spy program, many of which are freeware programs.