Can you get a virus from a keyboard?

paulyjustin · 11 Mar 2019

I know this might sound like a stupid question. But say you have a keyboard and you do not know if someone did anything to it. Then you connect it to your laptop. Assuming its a wired keyboard, this is impossible right? But what if its a wireless keyboard? I ask this because i might be leaving my keyboard and don't know if it would get touched etc. Thus i dont want someone to put a virus on a keyboard and then when i connect it to my laptop, i get a virus.

I guess you can also say like could you get a virus if you buy a keyboard from someone like say if they were a hacker so to speak? Im pretty sure the answer is no but want to be sure. Im pretty sure no for wired and wireless... maybe?

Compumind · 11 Mar 2019

paulyjustin said:

I know this might sound like a stupid question. But say you have a keyboard and you do not know if someone did anything to it. Then you connect it to your laptop. Assuming its a wired keyboard, this is impossible right? But what if its a wireless keyboard? I ask this because i might be leaving my keyboard and don't know if it would get touched etc. Thus i dont want someone to put a virus on a keyboard and then when i connect it to my laptop, i get a virus.I guess you can also say like could you get a virus if you buy a keyboard from someone like say if they were a hacker so to speak? Im pretty sure the answer is no but want to be sure. Im pretty sure no for wired and wireless... maybe?

Hi.

No question is stupid. If you have a wireless keyboard, take the batteries out for 30 seconds and then put them back in.
This will reset the keyboard, or some come with a reset button or hole that you would use a paper clip to reset - in that case do both - reset first and then remove batteries as above.

Take care!

paulyjustin · 11 Mar 2019

Hi there. Its a wired keyboard. So that mean no issue at all?

Im curious but would this apply to say a wireless mouse as well then?

Compumind · 11 Mar 2019

paulyjustin said:

Hi there. Its a wired keyboard. So that mean no issue at all? I'm curious but would this apply to say a wireless mouse as well then?

None for the wired keyboard and none for the mouse.

No worries!

paulyjustin · 11 Mar 2019

So if its a wireless mouse, no issue at all either?

f14tomcat · 11 Mar 2019

Take the dongle out when you leave and take it with you.

Ztruker · 11 Mar 2019

There have been no reported cases of a virus infection starting from a keyboard or a mouse.

Could it happen, absolutely, but it would require someone to replace some hardware in the keyboard and/or mouse to hold the virus and some way to get it from there, through the dongle into the computer.

Steve C · 12 Mar 2019

paulyjustin said:

I know this might sound like a stupid question. But say you have a keyboard and you do not know if someone did anything to it. Then you connect it to your laptop. Assuming its a wired keyboard, this is impossible right? But what if its a wireless keyboard? I ask this because i might be leaving my keyboard and don't know if it would get touched etc. Thus i dont want someone to put a virus on a keyboard and then when i connect it to my laptop, i get a virus.

I guess you can also say like could you get a virus if you buy a keyboard from someone like say if they were a hacker so to speak? Im pretty sure the answer is no but want to be sure. Im pretty sure no for wired and wireless... maybe?

The only virus you will catch is one containing RNA or DNA!

pietcorus2 · 12 Mar 2019

Sure you can !...............if you dont wash your hands.............

Maki711 · 21 Mar 2019

Hallo,

The only thing you could get is a broken driver (after an update, had that with logitech) that can cause some problems.
The other thing is that if somebody physical tempered with your keyboard and created a hardware keyloger, which we did to the teachers pc in school, those were fun times.

Other than that, do not worry.