Learn about Trojan Horses and what they can do to your computer - and how you can remove them
Viruses, Cookies and Trojan Horse Viruses - What are they?
It was only 2 years ago that my accountant inherited a computer virus which seized control of her computer modem, randomly dialling an African premium rate number.
The eventual cost of having this "trojan horse" virus on her computer meant that it had clocked up over £100 in phantom telephone calls, resulting in a long battle with her telephone provider. She eventually recovered the costs, proving that she really *didn’t* ring this premium rate number. It caused her a lot of stress and time.
People often feel violated when they discover a virus is haunting their computer and not knowing how to deal with it is the worst part. In many cases, people do not even know that these viruses are lurking on their computer - or the extent of their malicious intent.
So what do computer viruses do?
At one end of the scale, computer viruses can be nothing more than annoying things that make windows pop up on your screen, offering to save you money and then redirecting you automatically to a website to buy something.
At the other end of the spectrum, they can record what you type on your keyboard - and this means recording any passwords you may type in on secure websites - including your credit card numbers and online banking details.
Why viruses are sometimes referred to as "Trojan Horse" viruses
You may have learnt about this at school from the Greek story; the Greeks and the Trojans were at war and neither side was winning until one of the Greek kings had an idea.
"Build a big wooden horse on wheels," he said, "large enough for a group of Greek soldiers to hide inside it."
The Greeks then decided to make the Trojans think they had sailed home - but they left the wooden horse behind. Wondering what it was, the Trojans found a Greek soldier hiding nearby and ask him what it was. "It’s a gift!"
Not wanting to upset their god, the Trojans rolled the horse into their city walls and the Greek soldiers jumped out, literally massacring the city from the inside out.
The parallel is drawn with a Trojan horse virus in the same way – it gets inside your computer, and then causes havoc from the inside out.
I've heard about "Cookies" - what are they, and should I care?
Cookies in this context are not the staple diet you dunk into your cup of tea in the morning. They are harmless bits of information that a website might leave on your computer after you visit it.
The majority of shopping websites and larger sites, including E-Bay, Amazon and many others use “cookies”. It helps your shopping experience because these cookies store your login information and username, for example.
It means that when you return to a website, it "remembers" your username (but usually not password for security reasons), saving you having to type it in again. Cookies also allow your computer to "remember" what is in your shopping cart as you add things to it whilst you shop online. Without using cookies, it makes things more difficult (though not impossible) to do for the programmers that build websites.
What should I do about Viruses?
Of the many anti-virus programs available on the Internet we have seen over several years real-world experience, we have found that AVG is one of the better ones. It is easy to use and, based on personal experience, causes less “conflicts” on your computer that Norton.
We hope this article has demystified some of the confusion about what, where and how viruses work and the importance of protecting your computer.
We recommend AVG Anti-Virus as one of the better Trojan Horse Virus Removal programs. Click Here to find out more. |
