Key Loggers

[myshtern]

I've got a new guy who will be working online most of the time and I want to make sure he can still be productive when unsupervised. Anyone know of a good key logger for this purpose?

[STIBungy]

Do a search?

[myshtern]

I could do a search and try out 6 different programs or I can ask one of the 234907523 people here who work in IT for advice.

[Street_Kings]

want a software based one or an external hardware one?

[Mario]

I've used Stealth Keylogger with great results. :)

*edit* for a software-based one. Have never used a hardware one. :)

[STIBungy]

If you dont trust the guy, why did you hire him in the first place?

[Mario]

If you dont trust the guy, why did you hire him in the first place?

:werd: For a small business like yours, need to be able to trust people. :)

[myshtern]

I know that everyone will spend time browsing the net when the work with computers, I just want to make sure he wont spend an excessive time dicking around like all of the people on HAI. It's not that I don't trust him, I just need to know when to ride his ass to get work done.

Definitely just need software.

Stealth, any other suggestions?

[Weston-work]

I could do a search and try out 6 different programs or I can ask one of the 234907523 people here who work in IT for advice.

I'm not aware of many uses of keyloggers in IT, as it's not a common business need, and there are some ethical and legal issues. It's pretty much the 21st century equivilent of bugging someone's phone, so a business should have a pretty good reason if it is going to go down this path. I would suggest a less extreme option, such as network traffic monitoring or a simple program that logs the title of the currently active window.


If you dont trust the guy, why did you hire him in the first place?

:werd: And unless he knows about the keylogger, I would expect there to be potential legal problems with this approach, as it could capture bank and credit card numbers, and other sensitive information that you're not allowed to have.

I think the better solution here is to just let him know what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, then watch what Internet connections he's making... the simplest way is to just block his LAN IP from having any Internet access and force him to go through your own HTTP/HTTPS/FTP proxy server, which will log URL's. You can also use the proxy for your whole network and have it cache things, which will make more effective use of your Internet bandwidth.

[myshtern]

Right but he's not supposed to be doing online shopping while at work.

Any basic programs that will just monitor web activity like you're saying weston?

[Mario]

I give the employee 2 weeks before he leaves. :rofl:

[dreadlocks]

key logging is not the way to go.. I'd quit any job I found the were running a keylogger at.. first thing I do when I start a new job is google every process running on the machine. If your employees are allowed to check there personal email even during breaks and stuff then your exposing there login credentials which can lead to bank accounts, tax papers, bills and invoices etc.. What if another employee or a hacker discovers there is a keylogger running and figures out how to access its logs then you can even expose your information or network.

A dummy camera in his work area would be more effective at keeping him on task without violating any personal rights.

however, if you disregard his personal privacy or your liability then I would suggest a hardware logger such as:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/5a05/ or http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/7af2/

[dreadlocks]

buy netnanny or some shit like that from walmart that lets parents baby-sit there children online if that is your intentions..

If he gets his work done then who cares what he does in down time, Im doing tech support can be high stress and a constant firefight.. If they were to complain about my web-browsing my temperament with the customers would degrade and my moral would drop effecting performance anywase.


I once had a job where randomly a call would trigger my desktop to be recorded, it wasent hard to figure out when my calls were being randomly being recorded because I could see the memory jump 180mb the moment I picked up the phone... this just lead to me manipulating the system because I only made sure I followed there stupid rules when someone was watching.. as a result I slacked the most in the department but I always had perfect reviews on every one of my calls.. be weary if your employees are smarter than you are.

Ive found over the years the most effective thing preventing me from doing too much slacking is a supervisor or manager who randomly sneaks up on me without reason or warning.. keeps me on my toes and personal time to a minimum..

[STIBungy]

Damn, you're quite the nazi boss.


Right but he's not supposed to be doing online shopping while at work.

Any basic programs that will just monitor web activity like you're saying weston?

[chris_venturini]

if i was his employee i would log into HAI and make fun of him

[STIBungy]

:rofl:

if i was his employee i would log into HAI and make fun of him

[Mario]

[14:51:00] myshtern: DUAL MONITOR FTW!!!
[14:53:09] me: w00t! :)
[14:53:44] myshtern: i'm going to see if i can play cs on one monitor and work on the other
[14:53:53] me: Hehe good luck!
[14:55:22] myshtern: it doesnt work
[14:55:33] myshtern: they're tweaking out because CS changes the resolution
[14:55:34] myshtern: any tips?
[14:56:44] me: Yeah. Focus on working. ;)

[dreadlocks]

[14:51:00] myshtern: DUAL MONITOR FTW!!!
[14:53:09] me: w00t! :)
[14:53:44] myshtern: i'm going to see if i can play cs on one monitor and work on the other
[14:53:53] me: Hehe good luck!
[14:55:22] myshtern: it doesnt work
[14:55:33] myshtern: they're tweaking out because CS changes the resolution
[14:55:34] myshtern: any tips?
[14:56:44] me: Yeah. Focus on working. ;)

haha, yea run CS in a window instead of fullscreen.. your gona have to open console to get it to release your mouse tho :-P
err wait, I mean I dunno...

[STIBungy]

Bwahahahahaha!

[Weston-work]

Right but he's not supposed to be doing online shopping while at work.

Any basic programs that will just monitor web activity like you're saying weston?

For a proxy server, I like squid... it's fairly simple, keeps logs, and caches. For monitoring all network connections, you'll need a packet sniffer or something setup on your network's gateway, but I don't know any program names off the top of my head.

If you want to log the titles of the windows that he's using (which would capture most website names), it's really simple to code...


#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
char WindowTitle[256], LastTitle[256];
FILE * LogFile;

LogFile = fopen("log.txt", "a+");
if(!LogFile)
return(-1);

LastTitle[0] = 0;

while(1)
{
Sleep(5000);

if(GetWindowText(GetForegroundWindow(), WindowTitle, sizeof(WindowTitle)) <= 0)
strcpy(WindowTitle, "(unknown)");

if(strcmp(WindowTitle, LastTitle) != 0)
{
fprintf(LogFile, "%s\n", WindowTitle);
fflush(LogFile);
strcpy(LastTitle, WindowTitle);
}
}

fclose(LogFile);

return(0);
}


You'd probably want to add a timestamp to the log, hide/protect the file a little better, and replace "while(1)" with something that exits cleanly on system shutdown, but you get the idea. If you want to keep the user from killing the process, just call it winlogon.exe... a bug in Windows XP will treat it as a critical process and prevent the user from killing it.

[myshtern]

[14:51:00] myshtern: DUAL MONITOR FTW!!!
[14:53:09] me: w00t! :)
[14:53:44] myshtern: i'm going to see if i can play cs on one monitor and work on the other
[14:53:53] me: Hehe good luck!
[14:55:22] myshtern: it doesnt work
[14:55:33] myshtern: they're tweaking out because CS changes the resolution
[14:55:34] myshtern: any tips?
[14:56:44] me: Yeah. Focus on working. ;)
Since I havent been able to play CS, it seems like I'm working considerably faster with the two monitors. I would recommend dual monitor setup for anyone who needs to get more done in the work day.

[Weston]

Since I havent been able to play CS, it seems like I'm working considerably faster with the two monitors. I would recommend dual monitor setup for anyone who needs to get more done in the work day.

:werd: Multiple screens is very very nice, and definitely a big improvement over virtual desktops. I've got two of the systems in my office linked so that I can easily transfer files and clipboard data between them, but a single system with dual monitors is just as good if you don't need the extra CPU & memory that a second system would add.

[myshtern]

haha, yea run CS in a window instead of fullscreen.. your gona have to open console to get it to release your mouse tho :-P
err wait, I mean I dunno...
Oh shit, I figured it out. Productivity has now tanked...