Trojans

A Trojan (AKA Trojan Horse) is full of as much trickery as the mythological Trojan Horse it was named after. The Trojan, at first glance will appear to be useful software but will actually do damage once installed or run on your computer. Those on the receiving end of a Trojan are usually tricked into opening them because they appear to be receiving legitimate software or files from a legitimate source. When a Trojan is activated on your computer, the results can vary. Some Trojans are designed to be more annoying than malicious (like changing your desktop, adding silly active desktop icons) or they can cause serious damage by deleting files and destroying information on your system. Trojans are also known to create a backdoor on your computer that gives malicious users access to your system, possibly allowing confidential or personal information to be compromised. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans do not reproduce by infecting other files nor do they self-replicate.

 A Trojan Horse is one the worst infestations to have in terms of payload. Since a Trojan basically hands over your system to an attacker, it can be devastating. If your system was a planned attack, then chances are the attacker password protected the Trojan so other users would not access the system they effectively compromised. This will keep anonymous attackers that are just passing by from compromising your system.

Different Trojans have different payloads, but all should be considered dangerous when it comes to protecting your data. Once an attacker has the Trojan installed and running, he can set it to notify him when you are online and vulnerable. The attacker would then connect to your system and basically control it just as if he was sitting in front of it. This includes copying files and passwords, web browsing history, bank account info, and other data that is stored on that system, or a system that is connected to that system and has access to other systems on that network. Printing of documents, opening and closing CD or DVD drives, or viewing the victim through their own webcam are just some of the things that are possible when a system is infected with a Trojan Horse. As you can see, once infected with this, you will need to update much of you personal data, including changing passwords, etc.

One example of a Trojan is the “PWSteal.Refest”- A Trojan Horse that installs itself as a BHO (Browser Helper Object) for Internet Explorer and steals online banking information when it is submitted in web forms.

To help protect your system from Trojans one should:

-Keep  your OS (ie-windows) up to date
-install and enable firewalls (software AND hardware)
-Keep your anti-virus software up to date and perform regualr scans

For more information or to have us protect your system against trojans, please contact us.