What is a Trojan Virus?
In computer terminology, a Trojan refers to a malicious program that gets installed on a user’s computer without his knowledge.
The term Trojan is loosely used to refer a Trojan Horse or a Trojan Horse Virus.
What is a Trojan Horse?
A Trojan Horse is a program that is disguised as useful software that is available for free download. The name Trojan Horse is derived from the mythical Trojan Horse that was used in ancient Greece to gain a backdoor entry into the enemy’s camp.
Many people download and install such Trojan Horse programs and later find that their personal data has been compromised.
As soon as a Trojan Horse is executed on a computer, its developer gets control over the victim’s computer. From there on, it all depends on what the attacker wishes to do. He may steal your personal information or spread a virus on your computer or do nothing at all.
What is a Trojan Horse Virus?
A Trojan Horse Virus is different. It comes disguised in an email and when you click on a link contained in the email or open a file that is attached to the message, your personal data is sent to the email sender. Trojan Horse Viruses are also sent through chat messengers.
Once a Trojan Horse Virus gains access into your computer, it can even send itself to your contacts. The developer of this malicious program can use personal information to buy goods on the Internet, or send threatening messages to world Presidents, or reset email accounts, or whatever.
So, both Trojan Viruses as well as Trojan Horse programs are extremely dangerous and you must be careful about what you’re clicking or downloading.
Types of Trojans
Remote Access Trojans These commonly-used Trojans grant full access of your computer to the attacker. The attacker can rummage through your entire computer and take what he wants.
Password copying Trojans
These Trojans copy all the passwords and email them to the attacker. These are used by attackers when they want to get some information about the user.
Keyloggers
Keyloggers are programs that record keystrokes and send the data to the attacker, who then sifts through the information to retrieve passwords and credit card numbers. Keyloggers can record keystrokes online or offline.
Malicious Trojans
Such Trojans just destroy files from a victim’s system. They are set to automatically delete large volumes of files in seconds. These Trojans are typically set to activate at a particular time and date and can be controlled by the attacker.
Traffic-generating Trojans
Such Trojans just flood the victim’s computer with Internet traffic causing his Internet service to break down.
Proxy Trojans
These Trojans covert the victim’s system into a proxy server that can be used by any hacker around the world. Attackers can use the victim’s computer to attack other computers, access banned sites, send out chain emails, and more.
Final word
Every online user is at risk of downloading a Trojan Horse program or clicking on an innocuous link that in reality is a Trojan Virus.
The only way you can keep Trojans at bay is by being aware of what they are, their capabilities, and by equipping your computer with an anti-malware/anti-virus software.
