A useful key logger
 Many users think of spyware as a serious danger. This is not surprising
because hackers often use “key loggers” to log all keystrokes of a user.
Their aim is to intercept passwords, keywords and other important
information. However, spyware can be very helpful sometimes. And there are
examples and examples. For instance, a system administrator can install a
spy on the local network server and he will always know if the computer
was used or not and what operations were performed.
Of course, spyware has a wider range of purposes. Parents can use it
secretly to see what children do with the computer when the parents are
away. School teachers can use spyware to control their students’
activities. But it is especially useful when it is a part of the
information security system on your computer. Yes, exactly, utilities
usually used by hackers can help you resist them. To do it, the owner of
the computer or its constant user should install this utility. After that,
he or she will know who uses the computer and for what purpose.
However, it should be mentioned that it is not all spyware that can be
used as a security tool. Such program must have a set of features that
most key loggers lack. Let’s take Actual Spy developed by the Actual Spy
Software company for example. This key logger was developed as an aid to
computer owners and their constant users.
To start with, let’s name the main features of Actual Spy. The first one
is “Keyboard”. As you can judge from its name, this module is responsible
for logging all keystrokes. The utility also logs the case of each
character and can easily log almost all key combinations.
Another pleasant thing is that Actual Spy does not log all keystrokes
together, but groups them according to their programs. In other words, log
files show the title of the window the text was typed in. At the same time,
a lot of key loggers lack this feature and the PC owner cannot use the log
files to tell what program was used to type the text. However, this
information is very important because some keystrokes are quite acceptable
in one program, but can be harmful in another. But that is not all.
Another useful feature in Actual Spy is the “Show only characters” option.
You can enable it using the corresponding checkbox in the log view window.
After that, only the typed characters are shown instead of all pressed
keys. It means actually that the user will see only the text typed while
he or she was away. This feature allows you to make backup copies of your
texts with Actual Spy. Suppose you are working in some program and it is
suddenly closed because of a failure. The typed text will be saved in the
log files of our spy.
The next feature in Actual Spy is “Screenshots”. The program takes
screenshots at the intervals the user specifies (by default – every 5
minutes). Now PC owner will see with his or her own eyes what the computer
is used for while he or she is away. You can customize this option of
course: specify the maximum space screenshots can take, their quality,
hide the cursor from the screenshot, etc.
We move on to the next tab of the main window labeled “Programs”. It shows
the list of software started and closed while Actual Spy was working. And
actually they are not programs, but windows.
And, finally, here comes the last tab in Actual Spy labeled “Clipboard”.
Everything is also quite obvious here. It shows everything that was copied
into the clipboard during the work of the spy. Most users will not find
this feature interesting, but it can be very useful sometimes. The
clipboard is often used to copy long and complicated passwords. So if you
see a keyword in the clipboard list, you know that you should change it as
soon as possible.
So, we have examined the main features of Actual Spy. Now let’s talk about
the special features of this spy. First, Actual Spy is an invisible
program. You will not see any signs of its presence in the system and
antivirus programs will not detect it. Moreover, in the program settings
you can select such options as “Remove the shortcut from the desktop”,
“Remove the program from the menu”, “Remove the program from the “Add or
Remove Programs” list” and “Hide the program folder”. If the PC owner
enables these options, nobody will even suspect that there is spyware on
the computer.
Besides, it is really great that Actual Spy can protect its log files from
unauthorized access. The PC owner can install a password that must be
entered every time Actual Spy is started. Besides, all data the program
saves is automatically encrypted. Thus, it is hardly possible to read the
log files without using the Actual Spy utility.
And the last part of our review will be devoted to reports. Actual Spy can
generate reports based on its log files in two formats: text or HTML. The
user can specify the necessary time interval and select necessary types of
log files. But there is more to it than that. Actual Spy can also create
reports automatically and send them to the specified e-mail address.
Moreover, the reports can be generated either at the specified intervals
or when the log file exceeds the specified size (both parameters are
specified by the user). A lot of system administrators will appreciate
this feature because they will be able to immediately respond to someone's
work on the server.
So we can see that the advanced key logger Actual Spy can be an important
part of the information security system. This utility will be really
helpful to both the system administrators of local area networks and home
users.
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