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What is a Trojan Horse Virus?. It is a program that is downloaded usually with a music or move file. They usually will erase memory, send credit card #s and passwords to strangers and let them steal identities without the person knowing it. Why is it called a “Trojan Horse”?.
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What is a Trojan Horse Virus? • It is a program that is downloaded usually with a music or move file. • They usually will erase memory, send credit card #s and passwords to strangers and let them steal identities without the person knowing it.
Why is it called a “Trojan Horse”? • Legend has it that the Greeks won the Trojan war by hiding in a huge, hollowed out horse that was given as a gift to the city of Troy. They were then able to sneak in without anyone knowing and then captured the city and won their war. • This program sneaks in with another downloaded file and gives out your information without you knowing it ever happened.
It isn’t actually a virus • It is actually a destructive program that masks itself as being a normal application. • Viruses replicate themselves Trojan Horses do not replicate. • Some of the Trojan Horses actually are downloaded as file to get rid of viruses.
How will you know if you’ve been infected? • People are asking you why you’re trying to send them computer viruses or Trojan horses • You can unhide your file extensions such “exe”, “vbs”, “com”, “bat”, etc. A Trojan horse will have multiple extensions because it attaches itself to other files that might look something like “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs”
How to avoid downloading them • Download a good virus scan to check your computer for such files. • Get a virus scan that will do updates to try and keep track of what’s going into your computer. • Firewalls are good to have but don’t do that much against them because you’re downloading it.
Other ways to avoid Trojan Horses • Don’t download blindly from sites you aren’t 100% sure about. • Know what files you’re opening even if you think it’s from a friend. • Look out for file extensions. • Don’t think that you are 100% protected just because you have a virus-scan program because they aren’t perfect.
How to fight off Trojans if infected • You need to do a Clean Re-installation. • This is the only sure way to get rid of a Trojan or virus. • Save everything you need on your computer. • Reformat the disk and re-install you operating system.
Bibliography Lo, Joseph. "Trojan Horse Attacks." Online posting. 14 Oct. 2004. 20Apr. 2005 <http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/security/trojan.html>. Webopedia. 18 Feb. 2005. 20 Apr. 2005<http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/T/Trojan_horse.html>. "Fake Microsoft Update Is Trojan Horse." Wireless: NewsFactor 11 April 2005. 20 April 2005 <http://wireless.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=32664#story-start>