Black Pins in Cyber Cafes
Here is another message that is spreading on Facebook and a lot of its users want to know if it is real or fake. The message warns cyber café users of hardware keyloggers that can be used to record their computer keystrokes. A hardware keylogger is a device that a computer keyboard can be plugged into at one end and, the other end is plugged into the computer.
Any key that is pressed on the keyboard is sent to the keylogger, which it records and then sends the same key to the computer. These keystrokes can be your credit card number, password, username, PIN # or other sensitive information.
The user of the computer would not be able to tell that the device is connected to the computer unless that user is able to look at the back of the computer.
This is how the device looks:
These devices are not used anymore or rarely used and, were replaced by software keyloggers, which are free and more sophisticated. Software keyloggers can record keystrokes, tell which website you on, and sent this information anywhere in the world.
On the other hand, a hardware keyloggers must be installed and removed by someone who is at that particular location and is not able to tell which website you are on. It will only record keystrokes and the person who set it up will not know where to use the information. They won't be able to tell if the information recorded is a banking password, e-mail account password etc.
These hardware keyloggers come in different colors, not just black.
A copy of the hardware keylogger message spreading on Facebook:
Dear friends, If you visit a cyber cafe and find find any black pin attached to ...your CPU as shown in the picture, kindly do not use that system. This pin is actually a connection which save all your data you enter in the system.
Thus it is a risk to your privacy over net. Risk to passwords, banking or any data you entered. Itz a hardware key-logger, very powerful. it records each and every action of ur system.
Please *SHARE* this information among your friends and secure them too
This threat is possible but, I would be more concerned about a software keylogger. I do not recommend that you share this message or any other rumor-related message on Facebook. Do not use public computers for banking, online shopping, or any purpose that requires you to login to gain access to sensitive information; use your personal or work computers instead.
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Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.