Keystroke Logging Increases
JamesAlfaro writes "Hackers are likely to release more than 6000 keylogging programs this year--up 65 percent from the number in 2004--according to Reston, Virginia, security vendor iDefense." From the article: "Each variant could lead to anything from a few to several thousand infections, Ken Dunham, senior engineer at iDefense, said. Keylogger software typically tracks keystrokes on infected computers and is used to try to steal sensitive information such as user names and credit card data. The biggest problem with keyloggers, which silently relay data to attackers, is that they often go undetected, easily slipping past firewalls and antivirus software, iDefense, a division of VeriSign, said. "
For the moment it's fairly easy to find out when a machine has spyware. What would scare me is when a decent programmer will start to write such programs so that it is completely stealth and doesn't bring the machine to a grinding halt.
... It's not as easy as you say to find out when a machine has spyware.
And what make you think it's not aldready happenned ? Maybe you're just not aware of it now.
The Sony rootkit has been running on thousands of computers for months without anyone to notice it
wtf.n0x.org