Trojan Horse

What are Trojan Horses?

In today’s computer world, Trojan Horses are defined as “malicious, security-breaking program that is disguised as something benign”. Trojan Horses have the capability to erase your disk, send your security and passport number to the thief, or lets a thief hack your computer. They do not have the capability to duplicate themselves just like worms do. Usually Trojans will create a back door or a trap door to send the information it has gained to the original sender. Some are made to be more annoying than dangerous. They can change your desktop background or add silly icons to your desktop.

How did my computer get infected?

You may have opened or downloaded a file ending in a like “exe”, “vbs”, “com”, “bat”, etc. For example: “dmsetup.exe” or “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs. These are tricks of the Trojan. Files that you may have opened seem very harmless and important. They can also be sent through email attachments. Trojan horses can literally spread through anything you download, from a free online game to videos.

What can I do to get rid of them?

Fortunately, there are programs that help get rid of Trojan Horses like Clean Re-installation, Anti-Virus Software, or Anti-Trojan Programs. These all cost money but they are worth it. Clean Re-install will back u p your entire hard drive and re-install all your original programs. Anti Virus Software can handle Trojans pretty well most of the time. Anti Trojan Programs are programs that specialized in handling Trojans and not other common viruses. The best way to be sure that you won’t get infected is to never open email attachments sent by an unknown sender.

Works Cited:

Beal, Vangie. “The Difference Between a Virus, Worm and Trojan Horse?.” 3 Dec 2008 <http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/virus.asp>.

Holetsky, Sherry. “What is a Trojan Horse?.” 2 Dec 2008 <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-trojan-horse.htm>.

Landesman, Mary. “What’s a Trojan Horse virus?.” 2 Dec 2008 <http://antivirus.about.com/b/2006/05/31/whats-a-trojan-horse-virus.htm>.

Lo, Joseph. “Trojan Horse Attacks.” 2 Dec 2008 <http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/security/trojan.html>.

None. “What is a Trojan Horse Virus?.” 2 Dec 2008 <http://www.tech-faq.com/trojan-horse-virus.shtml>.