Hello! This is my first post and I came here to ask a question in hopes of getting an answer from a seasoned expert in security matters.

I have a Microsoft Word document that I typed a full page of gibberish (a long time ago), but somewhere in all that text filled with random letters and numbers is my ID and password for my on-line bank and brokerage accounts. I obviously know where in the document these ID's and passwords are. What I do when I want to log into my accounts is open the Word document first, then open the sign-in web page for the financial account. I then copy and paste the ID and password from the Word doc to the sign-in page. I figure that since I am not actually physically typing these ID's and passwords when I sign in, that I am safe from keyloggers because there are no keystrokes to record. Am I right? Is this a safe method?

Thanks for a reply.

Dave M.

Welcome to BC McMansion

Some keyloggers can do more than monitor your keystrokes.

About Keyloggers and what they can do
Introduction to Keyloggers
Keyloggers: How they work and how to detect them
How to protect yourself from keyloggers

Thanks for the interesting info. My method is not that safe after all! After reading the articles, it looks like the way to go is to get a virtual keyboard withthe "mouse hover" feature. I did a quick feature search of a couple of virtual keyboards but couldn't find one. Do you or anyone else know of one? Thanks again.

Someone may have better knowledge than I on this,but I don't think they're ready to market .Still too many glithches.

Here's another option I have thought of. How about using a macro? I sometimes use a macro to facilitate an easy way to flip through a bunch of stock charts and I know I can program my old macro program, AimKeys, to do mouse tracking and/or data insert w/o striking the keys on a keyboard.

I wonder if the keylogger spyware programs that can do a screen capture activated by a mouse click, can sense a *simulated* mouse click?

In addition, I forgot to mention that I use a multi-monitor setup, so I have the Word document on one screen and my financial account sign-in page on the other screen. I wonder if the screen capture type of keylogger programs can screen capture both screens at the same time? Maybe I do have them beat after all with a multi-monitor setup.

Any ideas?

Have you thought about operating in a sandbox environment? This entry in the Sandboxie FAQ says that if a keylogger isn't already installed on your machine and you always browse in a sandbox, you won't get a keylogger installed.

Disclaimer: I can't vouch for any of this information, as I haven't yet tried running any sandboxes.

Here's some further info on these environments

About.com

Sandboxie

Returnil Virtual System

Another option would be to use the browser add-on, KeyScrambler Personal.
Here's a review on it, done by Grinler.

Great find on that KeyScrambler personal! Thanks! I'd give you a rep point if we were at www.slickdeals.net

You're welcome, McMansion.
Glad I could help.