GuardedID - LavaSoft Offer

A: A key logger is a piece of malicious software (or "malware") which records every keystroke you make on a keyboard. Keyloggers can be installed without your knowledge or consent when you visit a website or email, install a program, or perform other activities. Once installed, the keylogger records your key strokes, and then "phones home" to upload your confidential information to a complete stranger.

Back to Questions

Q: How do keyloggers & spyware get on my computer?

A: Keyloggers are often hidden inside what appears to be legitimate applications, graphics, music files, downloaded pictures, etc. Identity thieves and hackers get you to unwittingly download their malicious software through an email or instant message that "makes sense". The world–renowned Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (ausCert), has published a report showing that 80% of all keyloggers are not detectable by Anti–Virus software, Anti–Spyware software or Firewalls. Identity thieves have also been known to portray themselves as kids on popular teen sites and share infected files. Listed below are just "some" of the creative ways in which Identity thieves have been know to distribute their keyloggers:

MP3 Music Files
email attachments
Clicking on deceptive pop–ups
AVI Files i.e. "YouTube" or other videos
A legitimate website link, picture, or story could be infected
Downloaded Games or any other PC tools or programs
Faked Malicious Websites which impersonate popular websites like Google, eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, banks

Back to Questions

Q: Does GuardedID^® provide protection from clickjacking?

A: Yes. ClickJacking is a malware techniqe using iframes and web page layers in HTML to get a user to click on a potentially dangerous button or link. You overlay the potentially malicious button on top of an existing legitimate web page button such that when a user clicks what they believe is the legitimate button they are instead clicking your malicious button. This all happens transparently to the user. At this point the users click on the button has been "ClickJacked". "Opacity" clickjack is when you make the malicious page invisible and put it on top of the friendly page. "Positional" clickjack is when the malicious button or link is camouflaged by carefully surrounding it with a friendly page.

GuardedID^® includes warnings for "Opacity" clickjacking as well as "Positional" clickjacking.

Back to Questions

Q: How big is the cybercrime problem?

A: Someone's Identity is stolen "Every Three Seconds". The FBI recently released a report stating for the first time ever, that cybercrime revenues have exceeded drug trafficking as the most lucrative illegal global business, estimated at reaping more than $1 Trillion annually in illegal profits.

Back to Questions

Q: My computer already has an anti–virus program, isn't that good enough?

A: Unfortunately, not. Anti–virus programs are reactive programs. They can only stop and detect against "known" and already "catalogued" viruses, and they cannot protect you against a brand new virus that has just been written. Most anti–virus software requires a frequently updated database of threats. As new virus programs are released, anti–virus developers discover and evaluate them, making "signatures" or "definitions" which allow their software to detect and remove the virus. However, this update process can take anywhere from several months up to a full year for your anti–virus manufacturer to build a "fix" for a single virus. It is estimated that there are currently thousand of new viruses introduced on the Internet on a daily basis. It is an impossible task to immediately identify a new virus and protect against it. GuardedID^® is the perfect compliment to your existing anti–virus software. GuardedID^® secures everything you type, despite any new keylogging viruses that may have infected your computer without your knowledge, and by encrypting your keystrokes at the keyboard level and routing them to your browser in a secure path.

Back to Questions

Q: Why would an ID Thief want to steal my keystrokes?

A: Stolen keystrokes lead to money! Keyloggers are designed to steal your keystrokes when you bank, shop and email online. We bank online. We pay bills online. We fill out applications online. We check our 401Ks online. We send contracts online, shop with our credit cards online, we log into our corporate networks and type sensitive and corporate information. The personal and financial information that you enter both off and online is exactly what the Identity thief is after.

Back to Questions

Q: Can cyber predators watch what my kids are doing online?

A: The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported 2,660 incidents of adults using the Internet to entice children into meeting in 2005. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in April that one in every five children who go online is solicited, and that at any given time 50,000 predators are online trolling for youth contact.

"Predictability. They say 'I'm in school, I'm going bowling one night, I'm going to the movies one night.' They give their name, they give out their birth date and their likes or dislikes," Sue Balz-Verzal, a Wisconsin mother of two, said. "Kids are giving out way too much information online."

Cyber–security consultant Tom Kellermann says 500 agents work primarily on cyber crime. The FTC states that 10 million Americans' identities have been stolen. According to KXTV, children aren't immune from identity theft. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says as many as 400,000 children may be victims of identity theft. The number of complaints involving kids has grown by 78 percent, making it the fastest growing segment of ID Theft victims. Mrs. Clinton cites a case in which an identity thief used a 7-year–old's name, Social Security number and clean credit history to buy a $40,000 houseboat.

Back to Questions

Q: I thought that the yellow lock on the bottom of a webpage means that I'm protected?

A: You are only "partially protected". The yellow lock (SSL) on the bottom of your screen means that your data is protected from "your browser" to the host computer (wherever that is on the Internet). It does not protect your data between the keyboard and your browser. That's what GuardedID^® does; it encrypts your data from the point of origin (your keyboard) and delivers it safely and securely to your browser.

Back to Questions

Q: I heard that ID Thieves could trick you to click on an invisible link. Is that true?

A: Clickjacking is a new type of cyber threat whereby an invisible link or button containing malicious code can be placed over a legitimate link or button on any website without the user's knowledge. This malicious link could also appear as a non–threatening link which essentially sends you to another website without your knowledge. When a user clicks on an unseen link, the cybercriminal has the ability to take control of that PC and do whatever they want with it, such as download keystroke loggers or malware, which can wipeout the computers hard drive. Another example is the following: A Web user might think that they are clicking on a button to close a dialogue box, when the button pressed in reality deletes all their e–mail messages in their Gmail account. Or, a user might believe they are clicking on a button to decline to take a survey, when they are actually transferring money from their bank. This technique could be used to raise an article's Digg score or get paid for a pay–for–click advertisement.

GuardedID^®'s Anti–Clickjacking feature helps prevent against these types of attacks by taking the invisible buttons and/or links and making them visible, by highlighting them with red dashes, showing the end user that the webpage that they are on may contain malicious code. GuardedID^®'s anti–clickjacking feature will also highlight in red dashes, ads, links or content which is being served from a third party site that could be unsafe. When you travel to these third party sites you should always use caution making sure you are on a legitimate site.

Back to Questions

Q: Why is encryption the strongest form of security?

A: Encryption is a process that scrambles information into a format that unauthorized parties cannot decode or utilize. 128-bit encryption is the strongest, most secure form of encryption generally utilized in Internet browsers in North America. According to RSA Labs, it would take trillion-trillion years to crack this type of encryption using today's technology.

GuardedID^® utilizes 128-bit encryption to keep your information secure both on and offline and then re-routes that encrypted information on a separate path directly to your browser, bypassing any malicious programs that may be hiding in your computer to steal your personal information.

Back to Questions

Q: Can I use GuardedID^® in a business environment?

A: Yes you can. It is highly recommended that you install GuardedID^® on every computer that conducts business. Corporate data theft and data breaches are making headline news every day. Hackers and cyber criminals are looking to steal usernames and login password credentials for employees, steal bank account and payroll information, customer information, intellectual property, sensitive corporate secrets, etc. The average corporate data breach is estimated to cost a company in excess of $6,000,000 in financial losses, spiraling brand degradation and opens the company up to numerous potential lawsuits.

Back to Questions

Q: Who is using GuardedID^®?

A: Currently, GuardedID^® is being used by both consumers and businesses throughout the United States and Canada, as well as up to 45 countries around the world.

Back to Questions