Found a keylogger on my own machine after 3 months of weird behavior

I run a small IT side gig from home and I kept seeing random mouse clicks and file opens in my logs that I couldn't explain. Took me about 3 months to really dig into it, because I kept blaming Windows updates or my own bad memory. Finally ran a full scan with Malwarebytes and found a keylogger buried in a free PDF converter I downloaded back in January. My bank account and email were both fine luckily, but it was sitting there logging everything I typed for over 80 days. I think it came from a sketchy download site that looked too clean at the time. Has anyone else run into hidden malware from those fake file converter sites?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly38516d ago

Oh man, that's rough... I had almost the exact same thing happen with a fake PDF converter I grabbed off a site that looked way too professional. It sat there for months logging my passwords and I only caught it because my computer started acting sluggish in the evenings for no reason. Totally creeped me out when I found it buried deep in my temp files after running a deep scan. Those converter sites are just everywhere now and they all look legit enough to fool anyone rushing through a download. Glad your accounts were safe, stuff like that makes you want to throw your whole computer out the window.

anna_ross1916d ago

I gotta say @kelly385 I kinda disagree about the "rushing through a download" part. Being careful online is important, but it's also on those sites to not be shady in the first place. You can double-check everything and still get tricked if they make it look legit enough.