Dear Colleagues,
Physical security can be just as important as cybersecurity in protecting your devices against crime and breaches of security. We would like to share a reminder to periodically check your physical computing environment for anything suspicious connected to computers.
Keylogging hardware devices capture and record all of the keystrokes between the keyboard and computer for an attacker to collect and view. Similar to software keylogging malware, the data collected could include email and chat messages composed, as well as websites visited, passwords used, and other personal data. Hardware keyloggers are difficult to detect and require a physical inspection of your environment, especially if your USB inputs are not very visible. See below an example of what they may look like.
Tips for maintaining physical security of your devices
- Check computers for anything suspicious or unrecognized connected via USB or other ports
- Store your devices securely when not in use
- Use a password manager, limiting the need to key sensitive information
- Use multi-factor authentication to limit the impact of a stolen password
- Stay current with the latest security updates and anti-virus software to prevent software keylogging malware
If you find anything suspicious connected to your device or in a computing area on campus, please report it to security@uci.edu.
Thank you,
Josh Drummond
Chief Information Security Officer