Allen KEYKatcher 64K

4.0 Excellent

Jun 11, 2015

4.0 Excellent

The dongle Allen KEYKatcher 64K ($79 direct) is about the size of a PS/2 adapter and records up to about 65,000 keystrokes of data on flash memory. We installed the KEYKatcher in an unlocked office in 20 seconds. The biggest obstacle we encountered was dust bunnies.

To retrieve the data—either at the machine being monitored or at your own computer after retrieving the KEYKatcher—we just typed a configurable password into Microsoft Wordpad to call up the KEYKatcher's simple interface, which let us look at raw keystrokes. A search function helps find keywords, and another feature isolates occurrences of http, www, .com, and .net.

About Sean Carroll

I’m PCMag.com’s managing editor for software and services. The team of analysts I lead covers—among many other beats— security, productivity, and software for creatives. We test, analyze, and write reviews of antivirus software, VPNs, productivity apps, project management services, video editing suites, photo editing software, and digital audio workstations, among other tools.

I’ve been an editor at PCMag.com since 1999, back when it was printed on paper and called PC Magazine, in Manhattan. Before that, I edited a magazine that covered electronic warfare in Massachusetts, and before that I edited a travel magazine in Tokyo. All told, that’s about 30 years of experience, about 25 of it covering technology.