Security Management Strategies for the CIORequires Free Membership to View
There's also the issue of over-the-shoulder viewing. I doubt my cubical-mate could follow my typing on a keyboard lying horizontal on my desk, but he or she could easily see which keys I press on my screen as I enter my password (unless of course an overlay has been placed on my monitor to deter this).
Finally, since virtual keyboards aren't standard in any Web applications I've seen, there's the cost of development and support for the creation of the keyboard and its integration into the Web applications.
On the plus side, and a big plus at that, keyloggers wouldn't be able to capture this information, since you would be using either a mouse or a touch screen to enter the information, thus keeping passwords secure.
However, as a security professional, before I decided to use a virtual keyboard on my site, I'd have to weigh the risks. Who are the constituents who will be accessing the site and how technologically savvy are they? What platforms will they be using? What is the risk that the systems accessing the site will have keylogger or other capture software on them? What is the value of, or what are the privacy concerns regarding the content the site provides? Does this affect the end user's ease of accessing the site? After analyzing the results, I'd then decide whether the functionality justifies the risks of adding a virtual keyboard to my site.
This was first published in April 2010
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