Frank & Honest

• Life »
• The Internet and You:

Trojans

A Trojan horse is a program that unlike a virus contains or installs a malicious program.

The term is derived from the classical myth of the Trojan Horse. Trojan horses may appear to be useful or interesting programs (or at the very least harmless) to an unsuspecting user, but are actually harmful when executed.

The user is tricked into executing a program (e.g. an .exe, .com or even a screensaver -.scr) this will then install the trojan which can then open your computer up to anyone. For example – when you fire up your computer, an email is sent to the person who designed the trojan. This person can log into your computer – look through your hard disk, emails, on-line chat (they can see your screen), collect bank details and passwords. Dangerous stuff indeed!!

Some examples are:

• erasing or overwriting data on a computer.
• encrypting files in a cryptoviral extortion attack.
• corrupting files in a subtle way.
• upload and download files.
• allowing remote access to the victim’s computer. This is called a RAT (remote administration tool).
• spreading other malware, such as viruses. In this case the Trojan horse is called a ‘dropper’ or ‘vector’.
• setting up networks of zombie computers in order to launch DDoS attacks or send spam.
• spying on the user of a computer and covertly reporting data like browsing habits to other people (see the article on spyware).
• make screenshots.
• logging keystrokes to steal information such as passwords and credit card numbers (also known as a keylogger).
• phish for bank or other account details, which can be used for criminal activities.
• installing a backdoor on a computer system.
• opening and closing CD-ROM tray.
• harvest e-mail addresses and use them for spam.
• Restarts the computer whenever the infected program is started.
• Deactivate or interfere with anti-virus and firewall programs

• Deactivate or interfere with other competing forms of malware

See FrankandHonest.com’s internet security info page for more details on how you need to protect your computer and all the info you put on it.

Links and contact details

Name: AVG Anti-Virus
Web: http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition
Email:
Tel:
Info: Popular free anti-virus software. you can download the software from the link above. AVG also offers paid for anti-virus packages – see the website for a list of the differences between the free product and the paid for product.

To read the FrankandHonest.com disclaimer, please click
here

Frankandhonest.com is brought to you by ASK Education & Training Ltd. We provide training for young people and organisations working with young people. This site was created in response to countless requests from young people for a place to get answers.