KeyScrambler

 

KeyScrambler helps protect your computer from keylogging by encrypting the keys you type deep in the computers kernel. KeyScrambler does not possess many of the features that other anti-keylogging softwares do, but the one area they do focus on they do very well. According to KeyScrambler developer Qian Wang, the keys are grabbed at the earliest point they can be: the kernel. The keys are encrypted there before they pass through the different layers of the operating system. In addition to your browser, KeyScrambler also supports a list of other third-party applications.

 

Reddit boards provide a unique issue with KeyScrambler that can be a dealbreaker for some more tech-savvy internet users. KeyScrambler is created with proprietary code as opposed to open source code. Because KeyScrambler is proprietary software, there are restrictions on its use. Moreover, users cannot see the details of the code and how it is accomplishing its goals. While there are obvious reasons surrounding why a company would make their software proprietary, it causes some to be justifiably apprehensive since they cannot see ‘under the hood’. When it comes to software designed to protect user privacy, we often see that open sourced code reigns, which makes a lot of sense considering software users are looking for software they can trust to protect them.

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Another criticism is of KeyScrambler’s narrow scope. There are, for example, other methods of grabbing your keystrokes that KeyScrambler does not address.  This was highlighted in a Softpedia article from 2013 where an expert named Dragoş Gaftoneanu found a way to work around the system to retrieve keys from Windows applications, one of the programs supported by KeyScrambler. Qian Wang, CEO of QFX Software, responded to the claim, saying,

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“One thing to clarify is that as a keystroke encryption program against keyloggers, KeyScrambler simply can’t protect things outside of its designed scope of protection. The researcher’s assumed attack, while interesting, can hardly be called keylogging–It’s almost the same as saying that after you’ve saved a Word document, then have some code to read the document and claim it’s KeyScrambler’s fault.”

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You can read the rest of Wang’s thoughts in the Gaftoneanu work in the Softpedia article linked above. For further reviews of KeyScrambler try TechRepublic and techNorms.