We’ve all heard about the dangers of keyloggers and how they are used to steal your information. Some owners of HP laptops may have had a keylogger installed on their machines without knowing it. HP recently confirmed that a keylogger had been installed on hundreds of its laptops. This came after the vulnerability was discovered by independent researcher Michael Myng.
A keylogger is a hardware or software add-on that tracks everything that you do on your keyboard. This might be the password for your email, your bank account password, or any other private data. This keylogger, which HP says comes from a third-party Synaptics touchpad, is disabled by default. Unfortunately, it can be switched on by anyone who has physical or remote access to the computer. This could include malware from disreputable sites.
How Do You Remove the Keylogger?
HP has setup a support page where you can find out whether or not your laptop is affected, then you can download a security update (Softpaq link) to fix the problem. The list includes more than 400 models that are affected. So, it’s a good idea to figure out which model you have and check the list to see if you are affected. The vast majority of models have a fix, but there are still some models that have yet to have a fix posted.
Once you have the keylogger taken care of, it’s a good idea to take precautions against any more keyloggers getting at your information. Using a password manager is a good idea. In fact, you should probably be using one already. This prevents you from having to type in your passwords every time for every site, giving the keylogger nothing to track. You can also use a firewall to block the keylogger from gaining access to your system. It’s also a good idea to change your passwords on a regular basis, so should you have them stolen they won’t mean much to a hacker.
Keyloggers can be nasty business, stealing passwords and giving unsavory types access to your information. Are you affected by this HP issue? We can help.