Key is a single character in a keyboard which can be physical or virtual. Strike is the act of pressing or pushing something. Keystroke is the act of pressing a key in a keyboard where the keyboard can be a complete, traditional, or more specialized keyboard.
Below we can see a keyboard keys that can be easily pressed which will send input into the system which is generally a computer. In order to make keystroke easy, fast and reliable keys contain arc under them which will push back the key into its previous position automatically. Also, keys contain some spaces between then in order to prevent accidentally wrong keystrokes.
Why Keystroke?
Keystroke is a very frequent action of a computer or smartphone user. Generally, the keyboard is the most common and popular way to make input into the computer or smartphone. So there are different aims for making keystrokes.
Create A Text : Creating a text is one of the most possible reason to make keystrokes. Generally a text contains a lot of sentences, words and characters which can be typed with keystrokes.
Run Command : Commands can be executed with the key storekes. Especially Enter is the most popular keystroke which is used to start execution of the typed command.
Run A Function or Start Action : Keys can be bind into a function or starting action. Single keystroke will start this action easily. For example function keys like F1, F2, … are generally bind into functions. For example F1 keystroke will open the help information for the current application in most of the cases.
Keystroke Logging
Keystroke Logging is a popular term used to describe the act of logging the keystrokes into a file or remote system. Keystroke logging requires some small application which will run continuously and listen for keystrokes. According to the situation, the tracked keystrokes can be written into a file or send to the remote system if there is a network or internet connection. Keystroke logging can be done with methods like Hypervisor-based, Kernel-based, API-based, Javascript-based where all of them are technical and complex methods. There is also hardware-based keyloggers which is generally little USB devices and connected to the system USB ports.
Keystroke logging can be used for the following cases. But keep in mind that keystroke logging is a legal issue and should be considered carefully.
Tracking Children : Keystroke logging can be used in schools or homes in order to monitor children and their activities. Even keystroke logging can be used to prevent them from using abusing content.
Tracking Workers : Especially in the remote work systems keystrokes provides important metrics and information about the worker. Keystroke logging can be used to track and monitor the workers efficiently and work ethics whether they are working properly or not. But keep in mind that the worker should be aware of that he/she is tracked and this can be a legal issue in some cases.
Spying : Well first of all spying is illegal but different groups like black hat hackers, gray hat hackers, governments use spying where keyboard stroking is a method for spying.