One of the ways to avoid getting malware or malicious software installed on your computer is to avoid shady websites and also to not open suspicious emails with attachments. While there are more complex ways to install malware onto computers, the method we just mentioned are some of the basic steps users can take to protect themselves.However it seems that sometimes it can be completely out of the user’s hands. According to security research Michael Myng (via BBC), he has recently discovered that some of HP’s laptops came with a hidden keylogger installed on the computer (again). For those unfamiliar, keyloggers are basically pieces of software that can record your keystrokes on your computer, such as recording your usernames, passwords, email addresses, phone numbers, chat messages, and so on.
The affected HP laptops include the EliteBook, ProBook, Pavilion, and Envy series of laptops, and according to the list that HP has published, it dates back to computers from 2012. The company has since acknowledged the issue, which they claim came from Synaptics software that was used to help debug problems, not spying.
They have also since released a software patch that will remove the keylogger. In a statement HP made, “HP uses Synaptics’ touchpads in some of its mobile PCs and has worked with Synaptics to provide fixes to their error for impacted HP systems, available via the security bulletin on HP.com.”