Beware of Downloads Bearing Gifts
When the siege of the city of Troy seemed as if
it would go on forever, the clever Greek army came up with an alternate
way to gain entry to the city, and the Trojan horse was created
- a massive construct that hid soldiers inside of it, lying in wait
until the celebrating Trojan army were asleep to come out and effectively
take over the city. Today's Trojan horses are not nearly as massive,
but the consequences are equally as devastating to unsuspecting
computer users.
A Trojan horse program is a malware (malware is any malicious computer
program, including viruses, adware, trojans and worms) program that
disguises itself as a file an Internet user wants to run on their
computer, but actually contains hidden programming that can allow
a hacker to maliciously access or affect the unsuspecting user's
computer.
Unlike viruses, trojans are not self-replicating; instead, they rely on the curiosity of computer users to spread. Trojan horses come in all sorts of pretty packages, including, but not limited to screen savers, slide shows, greeting cards, free software, and multimedia files. Often these files work exactly as you expect, but behind the scenes, they are opening ports or logging passwords or performing any number of other nefarious activities.
There are five kinds of trojan horses:
File Server Trojans - Often this type of trojan is the opening bid of the hacker. File server trojans can be very small, and are easily attached to various files such as the ones mentioned earlier in this article. Once it is installed on your computer, a file server trojan will open a port to the Internet to allow a larger, more powerful trojan to be installed by the hacker.
Often, file server trojans create a "service"
that runs when your computer first boots up before you log in to
the operating system, and thus before any anti-virus or software
firewall has had a chance to run. By doing so, the trojan can open
a port that is undetected by the firewall because it has not yet
loaded, and then shut itself down before the anti-virus program
runs, causing it to remain undetected.
Remote Administration Trojans - This is the most common type, which allows a hacker to remotely access your computer without your knowledge. This can be the most dangerous to you since the trojan program gives the hacker the same power over your computer that you have, allowing them to access all of the files on your computer, steal passwords, run programs, use your internet connection to perform illegal acts, turn on or off your computer or monitor, and much more.
Password Trojans - These trojans can sit passively on your computer for days or months gathering passwords as they are typed into various programs or Internet services. When it has gathered enough passwords, or after a certain amount of time has passed, the trojan will send the gathered passwords back to the hacker, often through a hidden email. The hacker now has access to your computer, and every program or web site you have logged in to in that period of time.
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15 Signs you might have a
Trojan Horse Infection
- Popups come up all the time, even when you are not surfing the Internet.
- Your computer browser goes to a strange or unknown web page by itself.
- Your computer starts to slow down significantly over time, even if you are not running any programs.
- Your Internet is abnormally / sporadically slow when you are not downloading anything.
- Your free hard disk space fluctuates wildly.
- Your home page on your web browser changes by itself.
- You begin receiving inordinate amounts of SPAM.
- Items in your Favorites list are added or removed without your knowledge.
- Your passwords are changed or indicate a "last used" date different from your last actual use.
- Task Manager stops working (CTRL+ALT+DEL)
- Strange Windows warning, info, error, or question boxes appear on your computer.
- Documents or messages print on your printer by themselves.
- Your computer or monitor turn off / reboot by themselves.
- When you reboot your computer you get a message telling you that there are other users still connected.
- You have strange purchases that you never made on your credit card statement.
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Key Logger Trojans - A key logger keeps track of every single key you press on your keyboard. With this information, the hacker knows every program you have run, what you typed, passwords, bank account information, emails, everything! Often, the key logger works with a file server trojan to make the log available for the hacker to download the information from your computer anytime he or she wants.
DDoS Trojans - A DDoS is a Distributed Denial of Service attack. This type of trojan sits hidden on your computer until a large number of computers have been infected. When the hacker wishes, he can connect to all of the infected computers at once and send a command for these computers to attack a single web site or server at the same time. This is how hackers are able to anonymously bring down large web sites and Internet Service Providers in a matter of a few minutes.
Becoming infected by even one of these trojan types can lead to other infections. Several trojan programs include scanners that search for computers that are infected with other trojans, on the principle that if the computer user has not discovered one trojan, they probably will not discover another.
There are a number of tools available online to help you find, remove, and prevent trojan horses. Here are a few:
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Hacker Eliminator - Working alongside your existing anti-virus and firewall programs, Hacker Eliminator runs real-time monitoring of all processes and programs running on your computer. It is a subscription based service, so prices vary, but they do offer a trial version at www.hacker-eliminator.com.
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Digital Patrol - This program is a trojan catcher, anti-virus, worm squasher, and all-around good to have program. At $24.95 for a single computer, or $199 for 10, it's worth a try. Download the 30-day demo at www.proantivirus.com.
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Anti-Trojan - If you know the actual name of the trojan, you can find instructions on how to remove it from www.anti-trojan.com, a free informational site about Trojans and other malware. Also be sure to read the many helpful articles on this subject.
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As always, the best security is to restrict and educate your users about the dangers of downloading anything from an untrusted Internet source.
Andrea
Drennen is the Internet Services Manager for TOPS Software.
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