Keyboard Logger Software: A Shield Against Insider Threats!

We are progressing towards digitalization and opting for advanced technologies to make our lives easier. But, every coin has two sides. Similarly, this advancement made way for many smart cybercriminals to find a loophole and invade our digital privacy in some advanced ways and are keeping a constant check on our digital activities! Isn't that scary?

As an employer, you would want to protect your company's data privacy, and deploying any cybertheft software alone will not guard the employees as the cybercriminals are not amateurs anymore. They have become more sophisticated in bypassing the state-of-the-art of any cybersecurity. 

Apart from the outside threats, the main threats that a company can face is the Insider threat! What if one of the employees' data gets hacked by an outsider and all the confidential data is circulated to the cybercriminals operating from outside? Or maybe a new joiner who downloads some malicious file through random clickbait on the internet, by mistake, and provides access to some cyber predator!

Therefore, it is important to execute some strict working policies and a keyboard logger software to track every keystroke of the employees during their working hours and detect any malicious activities.  

What Are Keyboard Loggers?

Keyboard loggers or keyloggers are hardware and software programs that support close monitoring of a keyboard used by the employees during their work hours and maintain a record of it, accessible only by the employees.

In short, keylogging is a part of the surveillance software to trace, capture and record all the keyboard activities, such as what they type in their web browsers, e-mails, messages, documents, and applications, etc.

Employers can have a complete insight into their employees' daily productivity, online and offline activities on the system, professionalism, and work attitude.

How Does A Keylogger Work?

A keystroke logger can be installed in a computer system of employees in different ways by anyone who holds access to a device from the IT department. Then, an employer can access all the data about the computer activities anytime.

There are two different types of keyloggers, namely -

1.  Software Keylogger: As the name says, it is a built-in tool that requires permission to access as it works internally. It can track only one employer's activities as it gets installed in their respective devices. It can get identified by the security scanners.  

2.  Hardware Keylogger: It is an external tool that does not require any access for installing on a device. It is not dedicated to one particular system, so employers can monitor many devices at a time and generate information on other devices. The best part is that it cannot be detected or identified by any security scanners. 

Let Us Discuss Some Of The Benefits Of Using A Keylogger-

• It helps you track your employees' activities during their work hours, and you get an idea about their productivity and work behavior. 

•  Suspicious activities of employees can be easily detected. With a keylogger, an employer can keep a watch on employees if they try to access any unauthorized websites or prohibited sites.

• The Keyboard logger assists you in backing up every document.

• Helps in monitoring internet usage by employees. The most visited sites, downloaded files, download history, internet browsing history, text messages, e-mails, social media log in, etc.

• It saves all the information in a cloud-based system, so the fear of losing the data is eliminated.

Since the global pandemic, every employee started working from their homes, and surveillance became challenging. Therefore the organizations adopted different ways to track their remote employees by installing employee internet monitoring software. 

Some of the most widely-used employee surveillance software is-

1. EmpMonitor

2. Time Doctor

3. Tera Mind

4. Hubstaff

5. Inter Guard

These power-packed tools will help an organization in the following ways-

• Constant surveillance of employees while they work from their home

• Captures screenshot at regular intervals of their screens

• Records each keystroke during their working hours

• Records their internet usage and download history

• Detects insider threats and any suspicious/malicious activities

• Measures productivity through recording their actual worked hours and idle time

• Records over and underworking employees

• Works as a perfect employee attendance tracker

• Tracks geolocation of every employee and much more

Is It Legal To Use Keyloggers?

Yes, it is legal to use a keylogger as an employer. It helps to track your employees and their work performance. But an employer cannot abuse this right to track any personal information of employees because it would be unethical. The intention behind using a keylogger or software to monitor the employees determines its legality. 

An employer has a right to track his employees because the company pays them for their work, so it deserves to know employees' performance. 

Can Anybody Impair A Keystroke logger?

No! A keylogger should always be reliable enough to work in stealth mode because if an employer finds it out, he/she might try to disable it while working from home. 

Wrapping Up:

In 2021, where the work environment has disastrously changed, and keeping a watch on your workforce is nearly impossible, especially for big companies with a fat workforce. Deploying a keyboard logger can keep the employers at ease, and surveillance will not be difficult anymore. For it's legal to use at a workplace, you can enjoy the features and benefits that will eventually add up to the overall smooth functioning of the firm.