The recent trend in identity thefts is the increased use of keylogging programs to steal unsuspecting victims’ personal information. Keylogging programs exploit security flaws and monitor the path that carries data from a person’s keyboard to other parts of the computer. When a computer user goes onto a website that requires him or her to input personal information, namely a bank website or online retailer website, keyloggers record their typing and acquire that person’s usernames and passwords.

     Keylogging programs have been sold to the public for years, as ways for parents to monitor their children’s internet activities, but identity thieves have taken a liking to the programs’ simplicity and effectiveness, to take advantage of people’s personal information. Identity thieves hide Trojan horse programs needed for keylogging in email attachments, shared files, software downloads, or rooted in webpages. Sometimes the identity thief records the keystrokes saves them to a file, or the identity thief can even take a picture of the victim’s computer screen effortlessly and covertly.

     The problem is global. Recently, a Brazilian fraud ring was broken up by police after the ring was found to have appropriated $4.7 million from various banking accounts, and a Russian fraud ring was broken up that appropriated $1.1 million from French banking accounts. Experts estimate that approximately 10 million machines in America have been infected with keyloggers, which means up to $24 billion can be stolen by identity thieves. Several software companies have put out anti-keylogging programs, but nevertheless keylogging is on the rise in the realm of identity theft.