trojan horse

[123yebo]

can anybody xplain 2 me what a trojan horse is, the effect & threats (if any) it poses on my machine.


very concerned fellow

chaal

[Paradog]

A trojan horse spreads like a virus, but it is more dangerous:
Trojans are viruses who wait for you to go online once you have
executed them. If you go online the trojan horse writer will get
notified. Then he can gain control over your whole computer,
can delete files, copy files, and manipulate settings.

There are trojans like BackOrifice or Sub7 which also supports
remote control of the victim.

Unlike a virus the writer can steal information (documents, passwords) from the victim. Once it is installed you sometimes dont even notice it for month that you have been bugged.

So scan your pc regulary

[tshdos]

Actually, a trojan is a virus that comes "packaged" in a file that can be legitimate. For instance, a trojan can attach itself to a normal software program. When you run the program, both the trojan and the program are launched so it appears as if there is not a problem.


Effects and threats vary by virus. The more common ones are just annoying more than anything though some have the ability to cause serious damage to your computer ( not physically of course ).


The best thing you can do to protect yourself against trojans and other virii is to get antivirus software from an established vendor that updates regularly ( Norton comes to mind here ).

[Paradog]

I recommend you F-Prot.
Its free and its good.

www.frisk.com

[Gamer]

For trojans The Cleaner is good -- has a free trial.. http://www.moosoft.com

I use Norton myself to cover everything but used The Cleaner for many years

[RaaF]

I would'nt rely on Norton for trojans.
I once had sub7 on my comp, but the only one that found it was the Cleaner. And that even could'nt clean automatic, had to do that manually.

[cultiv8r]

I found that a sledghammer works best though. Won't miss any trojans at all!

But yeah, it's liks tshdos said 123yebo. Trojans are files that appear to be safe to run, but in fact are not.

For example, there was a trojan going around that appeared to be a SFX file (self extracting compressed file) - ones you might download to install a seemingly legit program. When run, it'd show the ZIP file was corrupt and couldn't be extracted. But at that point, your system was actually infected with a trojan. This allows the Trojan to be fairly large (1 MB+) and thus usually a bit more sophisticated (but not always).

[Bobo the Red]

A program that neither replicates or copies itself, but does damage or compromises the security of the computer. Typically it relies on someone emailing it to you, it does not email itself, it may arrive in the form of a joke program or software of some sort. what the hell does that mean?