Trojan Horse - October 29th

Trojan Horse, It's More Than A Legend.

“By destiny compell'd, and in despair,

The Greeks grew weary of the tedious war,

And by Minerva's aid a fabric rear'd,

Which like a steed of monstrous height appear'd:

The sides were plank'd with pine; they feign'd it made

For their return, and this the vow they paid.

Thus they pretend, but in the hollow side

Selected numbers of their soldiers hide:

With inward arms the dire machine they load,

And iron bowels stuff the dark abode.”

“Laocoon, follow'd by a num'rous crowd,

Ran from the fort, and cried, from far, aloud:

‘O wretched countrymen! What fury reigns?

What more than madness has possess'd your brains?

Think you the Grecians from your coasts are gone?

And are Ulysses' arts no better known?

This hollow fabric either must inclose,

Within its blind recess, our secret foes;

Or 't is an engine rais'd above the town,

T' o'erlook the walls, and then to batter down.

Somewhat is sure design' d, by fraud or force:

Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse.”

WHAT IS A TROJAN HORSE?

Much like the classical Greek story of the Trojan Horse, a Trojan Horse (often referred to as simply a Trojan) is hidden within a seemingly benign file waiting to unload itself maliciously onto your computer. A trojan is often masked by its author in applications promising benefit such as free screen savers or through even greater deception, programs promising anti-virus protection themselves. Common infection points include email attachments and Peer 2 Peer, or Person 2 Person (P2P) networks, where users feel they are downloading safe music, pictures, or game programs only to learn they have unknowingly installed a Trojan.

EXAMPLE OF A TROJAN

A program named "waterfalls.scr" serves as a simple example of a trojan horse. The author claims it is a free waterfall screen saver. When run, it instead unloads hidden programs, commands, scripts, or any number of commands without the user's knowledge or consent. Malicious Trojan Horse programs are used to circumvent protection systems in effect creating a vulnerable system to allow unauthorized access to the user's computer.

In addition to disabling, erasing data ,and crashing your system, a Trojan infection may lead to devastating issues that compromise your privacy and identity, such as the disabling of current security software, leaving a door wide open for information phishing programs. Some Trojans compromise your online browser, taking you to sites that resemble actual, legitimate online companies such as banks and mortgage companies, where the user is invited to provide information such as bank account and password information in order to "verify" identity. The most malicious versions of this threat contain screen shot programs and key-stroke logging software that gather information such as passwords and credit card numbers and send them off to be exploited. A Trojan may also have the ability to allow backdoor access to your entire system, allowing groups to directly manipulate and retrieve any information they want whenever you are on the internet.

HOW TO KEEP AN EYE OUR FOR TROJANS

In addition to constantly managing the programs you download and encounter on the web, this threat can best be combated by installing powerful spyware software that monitors and verifies downloaded files for malicious content before you unknowingly open them. These programs have the benefit of having large libraries of known Trojans and are constantly updating their definitions to counter newly developed programs. Use them as front-line protection and to identify and safely remove possible infections already in place. The importance of identity protection is vital in this modern age of information.

HOW TO REMOVE A TROJAN

Since Trojan horses have a variety of forms, there is no single method to delete them. The simplest responses involve clearing your temporary internet files and deleting it manually. Normally, anti-virus software is able to detect and remove the trojan automatically. If the antivirus cannot find it, booting the computer from alternate media(cd) may allow an antivirus program to find a trojan and delete it. Updated anti-spyware programs are also efficient against this threat.

A great program to combat Trojans is Ad-Aware by Lavasoft, you can grab it at http://www.lavasoft.com/