Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 5/31/2008

Question
At work i have a PC that i use for work and personal use. It has up to date protection against virus, but if one day i don't work their no more and if the PC that i was using gets infected with key logger virus, is their anyway for me to prevent that?

For example: "Just say i quit on Monday", how can i prevent my personal details from being stolen from key loggers? Like you know weeks ago i typed my user name and passwords for internet banking. How can i delete those records from the PC?

Answer
First of all, a keystroke logger only captures the keystrokes you make AFTER it is installed. But you are right to worry about this because your work computer might already have a keystroke logger. If so, it's too late to solve the problem other than to let your boss know that you worry that someone might take advantage of your having done bank transactions at work. In any case, you certainly are right to want to remove your financial data from your work computer so the next user or a future snooper can't find it.

Your browser has a way to empty the "cache". This is where passwords and user names are stored if indeed you had set up your computer to automatically log yourself into your bank.

In Internet Explorer, click Tools --> Internet Options --> General. Under Browsing history, click Delete and it will remove saved passwords from the cache.

Now -- this is important, just in case you are trying to create and then subsequently erase something more complicated than passwords -- emptying the cache does not truly erase anything. If your employer or law enforcement really, really want to find out what you have been doing with your computer, they can recover erased files, even ones that have been overwritten with new data. Ordinary thieves, however, won't go to this amount of trouble as this sort of snooping is expensive.

Also, depending upon where your employer is located, your employer may have the legal right to keep a keystroke logger or any other snooping device on your work computer. In some cases in the U.S., an employer is obligated to keep records of the computer activities of important employees (Sarbanes Oxley Act). In any case, whoever manages the network and computers for your employer (systems administrator) has access to whatever you do with yours. Worse, any coworker, cleaning lady etc. who has physical access to your work computer could sneak a keystroke logger into it. So using a work computer for personal financial transactions is dangerous. Ideally you should only use your work computer for things that won't get you into trouble with thieves, FBI agents, the Mossad...

Hope this helps.