What are Trojans
Trojan Horse viruses are often called only trojans. These are malicious programs, or malware, that are often willingly downloaded by unsuspecting computer users. The trojan horse is disguised as something else, such as a photo, so computer users often accept these quite willingly. There is a great variety of trojan horses, and each and every trojan horse virus can cause big problems for you and your computer system.
Trojans horse viruses aren’t precisely viruses, if on is being technical. Trojans, unlike viruses, do not replicate themselves, but they can be equally destructive, if not more so. This malware is much like the mythological Trojan Horse. Trojans are designed to make your system vulnerable. This way other threats can infiltrate the computer system. After a trojan horse is downloaded, it can allow another user or other program use your system. Trojans are almost exclusively used for unsavory reasons.
What does a Trojan Horse do?
Trojans primarily allow remote access to the system the trojan horse has been installed on. Hackers or programs can use the infected computer for various operations. One of the most common operations is to use the system as a botnet to spam or to launch additional attacks.
The trojan horse can also do multiple other things to a user’s system, including bringing in additional threats, like other malware. Trojans can often be used to steal a user’s personal information like financial information and login credentials. Files can be uploaded, downloaded, modified or deleted from the user’s system.
The trojan horse virus can continue to change and evolve over time. Some newer trojans take advantage of vulnerabilities in web browsers. A hacker then can remotely use the infected computer to hide their own internet user.
Trojan Horse Protection
While it is important to remove trojans if you get one, it is even better to avoid a trojan horse infection in the first place. The ultimate way to avoid infections would be to stay off line altogether, but that is most likely completely impossible.
Trojans can be avoided with care, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you or any other computer user would be safe. To avoid downloading a trojan horse, you should accept files of any sort sent by strangers. You should also avoid downloading files, including pictures and PDFs, from even known contacts if they are unsolicited.
To prevent downloading a trojan or any other malware, it is wise to avoid downloading files and software from unknown websites. It is also avoidable to even avoid clicking strange links you are sent via email or that you find on unfamiliar sites.
Trojan Horse Removal
Trojan horses can be removed if they are downloaded. Trojans are much like viruses in terms or removal. Most of them can be found and removed with antivirus and antimalware products. Some products that can be used include PCKeeper, Norton, and Kaspersky. These products will scan and find Trojans once they are installed on the system, and they may even be able to detect these threats before they are downloaded.
Occasionally an existing trojan horse may not be able to be detected by an existing product. To exact trojan horse removal it may be advisable to download a second antimalware or antivirus product. Use the first product to regularly monitor the system, and use the second to scan your system on a regular basis. Between the two software products, you should be successful with trojan horse removal.
