Best Free Onscreen Keyboard for Security

This review covers the best free onscreen keyboard used for security purposes. The main reasons for using the onscreen keyboard are stated in Best Free Onscreen Keyboard for Accessibility.

Neo's SafeKeys is a security-focused OSK that implements a barrage of stealth techniques for defeating spyware when entering passwords to applications and web browsers. Protection begins with the interface window itself being always set to at least 1% transparency, which defeats most screen loggers. Moreover, the position and precise dimensions of the SafeKeys window are set to vary randomly upon each new launch, to help thwart mouse position loggers. 

SafeKeys offers excellent security. It protects against keyloggers, clipboard loggers and mouse position loggers. It provides protection from screen loggers with the hover entry and hidden mouse features, as well as, defeating the common mechanisms that screen loggers use to take screenshots. Screen loggers that take pictures on mouse clicks will be defeated as the user doesn't click, and screen loggers that take shots at regular intervals won't know if you're passing over a key or whether you're registering a key press.

The password field is protected and I am yet to find any malware that can defeat the drag-drop mechanism. For those applications and browsers (eg Opera) that are not drag-and-drop enabled, SafeKeys can be set to use its direct data 'injection' scheme instead. The latter was newly devised in 2010. In either case, the confidential text is applied by the user dragging it and dropping onto the target entry field.

Neo's SafeKeys v3 Security Overview

Keylogger protection	Clipboard logger protection	Screen logger protection	Password field protection	Overall Security score
Great - Keyboard not used	Great - Clipboard not used	Great - Thwarts common capture methods	Great - fully protected

TrendSecure Transaction Guard protects against malware by offering two main features; an OSK and a utility that monitors for spyware. The OSK can only be used to transfer data between the OSK and a web form. It cannot transfer URLs to the address bar or other parts of web browsers, and it can only be used with Internet Explorer and Firefox, but works great within these limitations.

Transaction Guard is run from the TrendSecure website, and is downloaded each time you run it. It cannot be run through a proxy and cannot be stored offline, which may be limiting for some users. The OSK itself is easy to use, being a standard keyboard layout where users click keys, but the process of using the 'password clipboard' mechanism to transfer usernames/passwords to web forms isn't very intuitive and takes some getting used to.

Transaction Guard is quite secure; protecting users from keyloggers and clipboard loggers, the 'password clipboard' doesn't use the Windows clipboard at all, and the password fields are protected.  Transaction Guard doesn't offer any protection from screen loggers or mouse position loggers.

Transaction Guard's spyware monitor is a welcome addition, but there are other better (and free) tools that perform this function.

TrendSecure Transaction Guard Security Overview

Keylogger protection	Clipboard logger protection	Screen logger protection	Password field protection	Overall Security score
Great - Keyboard not used	Great - Clipboard not used	None	Great - fully protected

Mouse Only Keyboard (aka MOK) is an OSK that uses the clipboard to move MOK-generated passwords from other applications or web browsers, and offers protection against clipboard hooks.

I like how MOK offers all lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers and symbols on the screen at one time, and how it allows you to enter custom characters. However, I do acknowledge that some people may find the 'keyboard as a list' concept a little confusing.

From a security perspective, MOK transmits passwords via the Windows Clipboard, so it needs to be an effective anti-clipboard logger, but it only partially delivers in this regard. It does defeat clipboard loggers that use the hook technique, but it is ineffective against clipboard loggers that poll the clipboard for updates. In addition, the password field is vulnerable to 'field scraping' - the password can be captured from underneath the **** password hash.  I see these issues as quite serious flaws in MOK's design.

MOK does not offer any protection against mouse position loggers and screen loggers.

Mouse Only Keyboard Security Overview

Keylogger protection	Clipboard logger protection	Screen logger protection	Password field protection	Overall Security score
Great - Keyboard not used	Partial - Common 1 of 2 capture methods	None	None

• Best Free Onscreen Keyboard for Accessibility
• How to Improve Your Security When Using a Public Terminal
• Probably the Best Free Security List in the World

On-Screen Keyboard, Assistive Technologies, Predictive Text , Security, Keylogger, Screenlogger, Clipboard Logger, Password Logger, Anti-malware