What Is A Trojan Horse Virus?
Author: John Snyder
Many people who have a computer and access to the Internet
don't even know what a trojan horse virus is. Sadly, there are
even others who seem to assume the trojan and spyware and
viruses are the same and this is a misconception.
A trojan is a bad type of program that is attached to a useful
program that can be downloaded from the Internet. I am not
saying all programs on the Internet are dangerous, but some are.
When you run the downloaded program the trojan quietly installs
itself on your computer.
Often trojans are disguised as helpful programs that will scan
and remove adware or malware from your computer. The
unsuspecting computer user thinks that clicking on a graphic
link that says their computer is infected and this `tool' on the
website will clean up their computer. Unfortunately, they are
misled and the tool that got downloaded just installed a trojan
whose payload may cause all sorts of havoc. I have even heard of
video player codecs having a trojan horse virus attached to it.
What can trojans do? They can carry just about any kind of
destructive payload. They can crash your computer, collect
personal information and send it to a specially set up web site
in another country. However, the most sinister thing they can do
is install what is called a key logger. A key logger records
every key press and mouse movement. Do you use your computer for
online banking?
There are several ways a computer user can actually get one of
these viruses on their computer and not even know it. Unless of
course, you have a good computer security software program
installed on your computer and warnings will show you that you
are attempting to download something that has some kind of
threat attached to it. Some of the common types can be remote
access, data sending, destructive or malicious, proxy, FTP,
security software disabling and DOS, so these should be
considered when you download from the Internet.
You can understand the differences by learning more about what
you are up against and also will have a better understanding of
just what it is that is trying to invade your computer when you
download things from the Internet and in some cases other
sources such as checking your email. This is how destructive
these trojans really are.
There are big differences in the types of viruses, worms and
trojans. Much like the trojan horse is named after these
programs are designed to make a computer user assume the program
itself it for the use of detecting the bad programs on your
computer hard drive, when it in fact is the culprit of disaster.
While you might think of it as some kind of worm it is not. A
worm is in fact something that will initially spread from
computer to computer without the computer user having to do
anything.
So, you see why there should be more emphasis on the concept
that these two problems are not the same, although both are just
as destructive and you need security to actually see what you
have installed on your computer, or what is being downloaded on
to your computer.
If you have no security programs installed or firewalls
present, you are setting yourself up for a bad ending to an
invasion of your computer that you won't believe until it
literally hits your computer. Then you will be calling your
computer friend and ask them to `fix' your computer by deleting
everything and starting over.
Trojan horse viruses are on the rise along with malware,
spyware and viruses. Make sure you take the time to learn how to
protect your computer from these and other threats lurking on
the internet.
John(at) bestantivirusguide.com
About The Author: Find the best safe, free antivirus programs
by visiting http://www.bestantivirusguide
spyware website that specializes in reviews and ratings on the
most popular antivirus and spyware removal software.
