Software protects passwords via host of dummy cursors

Virtual keyboards have helped thwart keyloggers, but some danger while entering passwords still remained, as some malware is also capable of taking screenshots or even record short videos.

To remove that danger, Japanese security researchers have come up with a novel idea for protecting your passwords from screen-grabbing malware and nosy shoulder surfers.

SymmetricCursors is a system that conceals the position of the mouse’s cursor by hiding it within a mass of dummy cursors moving across the screen at different speeds and in different directions, reports DigInfo TV.

Sophos’ Graham Cluley is doubtful that this solution would stymie cyber criminals for long.

“If the Japanese system was widely adopted, is it not possible that – just as malware authors evolved their attacks to steal screenshots rather than just grab keypresses – malware would be developed which would interrogate the computer and ask for the co-ordinates of the mouse cursor?” he asks.

My personal problem with it is that there are certainly users out there – especially older ones and those that have poor eyesight – to whom this system would present more of a problem than to cyber crooks.