Share Your Thoughts

[Networc]

A common IA concern for the remote (home) worker is the possibility of a keylogger on the user's personal computer.  My recommendation is to add an encryption feature to your keyboards.  Here's how I think it could work:

1) The website, application, etc. that requires keyboard encryption will initially display a captcha message.  For instance, a remote worker could connect via VMware View Client to their virtual machine at work.  Upon the initial connection, the Logitech icon in the remote machine's system tray displays a pop-up captcha message.

2) The user then presses a button on the keyboard that puts the keyboard into "encrypted" mode.  It would light up similar to a caps lock light.

3) Once in "encrypted" mode, the user holds down the "captcha entry" button.  While the user is holding this button, the user then enters the captcha that is being displayed by the target application.  Once the user releases the "captcha entry" button, the keyboard will now send encrypted keystrokes that can only be understood by the target application that displayed the captcha.  A keylogger between the keyboard and the target application will pick-up the keystrokes, but it will log them in their encrypted form.

[Networc]

Further explanation:

When the "captcha entry" button is being held, no signals are sent to the computer.  Additionally, the user-entered captcha should be stored in memory on the keyboard - it should not be accessible by the computer.  It should be completely transparent to the computer that the keyboard is "encrypted".  It doesn't 'know' that the keystrokes are garbled non-sense.

To make the keyboard as "user-friendly" as possible, the keyboard could store several captchas and allow switching via numbered hot-keys.  Again, these features are local to the keyboard.  The intent is to completely neutralize the keylogger and to convince an employer that it is safe to allow an employee to work from home.

[AntonC]

Thank you for sharing this interesting idea Networc. I will be sure to forward your post to the keyboard product team.

Regards,

[Networc]

AntonC,

Thanks!  If the product team likes an idea, do they ever follow up in either the forum or via email?

-Net

[Networc]

Rather timely article:

Wired.com: Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet

[AntonC]

Hi Networc,

Thank you for sharing this article. Currently we do not have a formal process for the product team to communicate potential new features to the community. However, some of our product team members do participate in these forums from time to time.

Regards,

[Networc]

I developed a prototype of my suggestion and blogged about it at andrewcreed.com. The code is open source and available on GitHub.