On the Internet today, you can find many pitfalls in the form of viruses. All of them are countless. All threats can be classified according to the method of penetration into the system, the method of removal and the harm done. One of the most dangerous viruses today is a Trojan.
Today we will try to figure out what this threat is. Ultimately, we will try to figure out how you can safely remove such muck from your computer and mobile device.
What is a Trojan?
Trojan viruses are malicious objects of a self-copying type with executable codes that can be embedded in other applications. They pose a fairly serious threat to any computer and mobile system. The most affected systems are Android and Windows. Until recently, this type of virus was not thought to work on UNIX operating systems. However, just a few weeks ago, an attack was carried out on Apple mobile devices. It is believed that it is Trojans that pose the greatest threat. What is such a virus, we will now try to find out.
By analogy with historical events
It is not by chance that Trojans got their name by analogy with some historical events. Before we deal with the removal of Trojan viruses from the computer system, let us turn to the immortal work of Homer's Iliad. It is here that the recalcitrant Troy was captured. It was impossible to penetrate the city in the usual way or take it by storm, so it was decided to donate a giant horse, inside which there were soldiers, as a sign of reconciliation. Having penetrated the city, they opened the gates. After that, Troy fell. Trojan viruses work in the same way. The saddest thing is that such viruses do not spread spontaneously, but purposefully.
How a threat can get into the system
The most common method used to penetrate a mobile and computer system is to disguise itself as some kind of attractive program for the user. Sometimes a situation is observed when a virus embeds its own codes into existing applications. Typically, these are user programs or system services. Malicious codes can also infiltrate networks and computers in the form of graphics or HTML documents. They can be distributed in incoming attachments or copied from removable media. Moreover, if the code is embedded in a standard program, it can still partially fulfill its functions. The virus itself will be activated when the corresponding service or application is started. The worst situation is when the service is loaded automatically and starts with the system.
Trojans: consequences
If we talk about the impact of a Trojan, then this type of virus often causes system failures and disruptions to Internet access. But this is far from the main goal of the Trojan horse. The main task of the Trojan is to steal confidential information in order to be used by third parties. Confidential information includes logins and passwords for accessing certain Internet resources, state registration data, PIN codes of bank cards. In general, all that information that is not subject to disclosure. When such information is stolen, it is impossible to predict how it will be used. As a result, you may lose all the money from your bank account, or they will call you from some bank and say that you have a huge loan debt.
Removal of a virus in the Windows operating system.
Let's move on to the most important question: how can the Trojan be removed? In fact, this is not as easy as many users think. In some cases, of course, you can find and neutralize the body of the virus. But it is worth remembering that he is able to create his own copies, and not one or two. Finding and removing them can be a real headache for the user. Neither a firewall nor a standard anti-virus program will help if a virus has been missed and introduced into the system.
In this case, it is recommended to remove the Trojan using portable antivirus software. In the case of seizing RAM, the Trojan will have to be removed with special programs that are loaded before starting the operating system from a USB device or optical disk. Among portable applications, applications like Dr. Web Cure It or Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool. The maximum set of functions among disk programs is provided by the Kaspersky Rescue Disc utility. Of course, its use is not dogmatic. Today you can find all kinds of such software.
How to remove Trojan from Android
As far as devices running on the Android system are concerned, everything is not so simple here. Portable applications have not yet been created for them. Alternatively, you can try connecting the device directly to a PC and scanning the internal and external memory with a computer utility. But in this case, there is no guarantee that the virus will not penetrate into the computer when connected. In such a situation, the problem with removing the Trojan is solved by installing the appropriate software. There are so many things here that you just wonder what to choose. Most of the experts in the field of information security are inclined to believe that the best application in this area is 360 Security. It is capable not only of detecting threats of almost all known types, but also provides comprehensive protection for a mobile device in the future. Of course, it will constantly hang in RAM, thereby creating a load. But safety is still much more important.
What else should you pay attention to?
We have almost figured out what Trojans are. I would like to separately draw the attention of users of all systems, without exception, to a few more important points. Before opening an attachment that came with an email, check it with an antivirus program. When installing programs, carefully read the suggestions for installing additional components such as browser panels or add-ons. The virus can be hidden in them.
It is also better to refrain from visiting questionable sites, especially if the antivirus program issues a warning. It is also better not to use the simplest free antivirus software. It is better to install the same Eset Smart Security and activate every 30 days using free keys. Also try to store passwords, bank card numbers, pin codes and other confidential information on removable media in encrypted form. This is the only way to be at least partially sure that it is not being used for malicious purposes.
We consider in an accessible language what a trojan is, what is the peculiarity of this pest
Very often users come across such a concept as trojan. What is it and what is it used for, how is it dangerous?
So, a Trojan is a pest program that is somewhat similar to a virus, although, unlike it, the Trojan does not spread itself, but with the help of people. This type of software got its name in honor of the famous Trojan horse, with the help of which the troops of Achaea captured Troy by deception, building a huge horse, supposedly in a padarok.
The Trojans, not suspecting anything, pulled the building into what was considered an impregnable fortress. Under cover of night, the Achaean warriors crawled out of it and opened the gates of the impregnable Troy for the rest of their army. In this way, trojan, throne horse- henceforth began to mean by himself, some secret plan disguised as something harmless.
BMoreover, it in itself does not cause harm, but simply gives access to your computer to its owner (creator), and it, in turn, causes harm of varying degrees of complexity.
For the first time they began to speak seriously about them since the distant 1998, in which the first mass Trojan utility was created by the name - Back Orifice.
With the help of it, it was possible to control the victim's personal computer (PC) remotely, that is, via the Internet or a local network (of course, this could be used for the benefit, for example, to help users from a distance, but it would also be possible to easily steal something from a computer, for example passwords).
It was after the appearance of this Trojan that many began to worry about such programs. After all, they can cause enormous damage to a company or firm, with the help of them hackers can steal important access passwords, client data, etc. from them, which, in general, is constantly happening in the world today.
Again, the Trojan itself is not dangerous - it is just a way to gain access to something, to a computer, to mail, to a website. All harm can begin when its owner starts doing something, with the help of him, for example, stealing your passwords.
Trojans, according to their focus, can be subdivided into:
BackDoor (back door)- is used to gain access to the victim's PC in a roundabout way, which she does not mean, so to speak - enters through the back door (for example, through a hole in the browser or OS).
The principle of operation is as follows:
- Introduces itself into the system startup to automatically start from the start of the PC
- After some intervals, it checks for an Internet connection
- Upon successful access to the global network, it sends its owner access data to the victim's PC
- After that, the owner of the Trojan can perform various actions on this computer, up to and including theft or deletion of all data.
MailSender (mail sender)- this pest is registered in the operating system, after which it collects all entered passwords and codes on the victim's PC. The collected information is then sent (usually by e-mail) to the attacker. This is a common situation, often just like that, passwords for access to social networks, mail, credit cards, etc. are stolen.
LogWriter (log record)- the peculiarity of this type of Trojans is that they write everything that is typed on the keyboard into a special file. Then it is sent in some way (by mail, ftp) to the attackers, who, in turn, analyze these records and select the necessary information from there.
Thus, in an accessible language, we examined in general terms what a trojan is, what functions they are.
If you have any questions, the team will be happy to answer them in the comments.
- I like it
- I did not like
- 20 October 2015
- Alex website
Hi admin! For two weeks I worked without an antivirus, I didn't go anywhere on the Internet at that time, but today I installed an antivirus and he found three Trojans during scanning! Could they do something in such a short amount of time on my operating system?
Trojans: educational program
A separate type of malware is named Trojan because of the comparison with the Trojan horse, which, according to ancient Greek mythology, was presented to the inhabitants of Troy by the Greeks. Greek soldiers were hiding inside the Trojan horse. At night, they crawled out of hiding, killed the Trojan guards and opened the city gates to the rest of the military force.
What is the essence of Trojans?
A Trojan program, also known as a Trojan or a Trojan, is a type of malware that differs from classic viruses that independently penetrate into a computer, breed there and multiply, by participating in the activation process of a human-user. Trojans, as a rule, are not capable of spreading themselves, as viruses or network worms do. Trojans can disguise themselves as various types of files - installers, documents, multimedia files. The user, launching the file that the Trojan disguises as, launches it himself. Trojans can register in the system registry and activate during Windows startup. Trojans are sometimes modules of viruses.
How can you pick up a Trojan horse?
Installers of programs or games are often equipped with Trojans, and then those are laid out on low-quality file-sharing sites, sites-varezniki and other far from ideal software portals for mass download by Internet users. The Trojan horse can also be picked up by mail, Internet messengers, social networks and other websites.
Friends, now I will show you how you can download a real Trojan. For example, you decided to download for yourself, typed the corresponding request in the browser and got here on this site, of course, click Download
And instead of Windows, we are impudently given to download a Trojan, the download of which is interrupted by my antivirus program. Be careful.
Trojans can be deployed in different scenarios. These are requests to download some additional software - codecs, flash players, browsers, various updates for web applications, of course, not from their official sites. For example, surfing the Internet, you may come across such a warning, behind which, again, a Trojan program is hidden. Please note that there is even a spelling error on the banner.
These are links from unknown users, which you are actively persuaded to follow. However, an "infected" link on a social network, Skype, ICQ or other messenger can be sent by a familiar user, however, he himself will not even suspect about it, since the Trojan will do it instead. You can pick up a Trojan by succumbing to any other tricks of its distributor, the purpose of which is to force you to download a malicious file from the Internet and run it on your computer.
This is how a live Trojan might look like, I just caught it yesterday on a friend's computer, maybe a friend thought he had downloaded the free antivirus Norton Antivirus 2014. If you run this "antivirus", then
Windows desktop will be locked!
Signs of a Trojan on your computer
Various signs may indicate that a Trojan has infiltrated your computer. For example, the computer itself reboots, shuts down, starts some programs or system services, opens and closes the CD-ROM console itself. The browser can itself load web pages that you have not even visited before. In most cases, these are various porn sites or game portals. Spontaneous downloading of porno videos or pictures is also a sign that a Trojan is already in full swing on the computer. Spontaneous screen flashes, and sometimes also accompanied by clicks, as it happens when taking screenshots, is a clear sign that you have become a victim of a spyware Trojan. The presence of Trojan horses in the system may also be indicated by new, previously unknown to you, startup applications.
But Trojans do not always work by impersonating themselves; their symptoms are not always obvious. In such cases, users of low-power computing devices are much easier than the owners of productive machines. In the event of a Trojan infiltration, the former will be able to observe a sharp drop in performance. This is, as a rule, 100% load of the processor, RAM or disk, but no user programs are active. And in the Windows Task Manager, almost all of the computer's resources will be used by an unknown process.
For what purposes are Trojans created?
Stealing user data
Wallet, bank card and account numbers, logins, passwords, pin codes and other confidential data of people - all of this is of particular commercial interest to the creators of Trojan horses. That is why online payment systems and online banking systems are trying to secure their clients' virtual money by introducing various security mechanisms. As a rule, such mechanisms are implemented by entering additional codes that are sent via SMS to a mobile phone.
Trojans don't just hunt for data from financial systems. The object of theft can be login data for various Internet user accounts. These are accounts of social networks, dating sites, Skype, ICQ, as well as other Internet platforms and instant messengers. Having taken possession of a user's account with the help of a Trojan, scammers can use various schemes to extract money against his friends and subscribers - to ask for money, to offer various services or products. And, for example, scammers can turn the account of some pretty girl into a point of sale for porn materials or redirects to the necessary porn sites.
To steal confidential data of people, fraudsters, as a rule, create special Trojans - spyware, also known as Spyware.
Spam
Trojans can be specially designed to collect e-mail addresses of Internet users in order to send them spam.
Downloading files and boosting site indicators
File sharing is far from the most profitable form of earnings, if you do everything honestly. A low-quality website is also not the best way to win over a custom audience. To increase the number of downloaded files in the first case and the attendance rate in the second, a Trojan can be injected into users' computers, which, without even knowing it, will help fraudsters to improve their financial well-being. Trojans will open the desired link or website in the user's browser.
Stealthy computer control
Not only the cheating of site indicators or downloading the necessary files from file hosting services, but even hacker attacks on the servers of companies and government agencies are carried out using Trojans that are installers of backdoors (Backdoor). The latter are special programs created for remote control of a computer, of course, secretly, so that the user does not guess anything and does not sound the alarm.
Data destruction
A particularly dangerous type of Trojan horse can destroy data. And not only. The barbarism of some Trojans can damage the computer hardware or network equipment. DDoS attacks - disabling computer equipment - are carried out by hackers, as a rule, on order. For example, to destroy data from competing companies or government agencies. Less commonly, DDoS attacks are expressions of political protest, blackmail or extortion. Rookie hackers can practice DDoS attacks without any particular intent or global purpose in order to become expert evil geniuses in the future.
One of the biggest troubles for an Internet user is a Trojan horse, a virus that is spread on the network by cybercriminals. And although anti-virus software developers are constantly modifying their programs to make them more reliable, the problem still remains, because hackers also do not sit still.
After reading this article, you will learn how to protect your computer from the penetration of a "Trojan", as well as learn how to remove this virus if it did end up on your device.
What is a Trojan Horse?
The name of this virus is borrowed from the legend, which says that the Greeks made a wooden horse, inside which the wars were hidden.
Then this structure was delivered to the gates of Troy (hence the name), allegedly as a sign of reconciliation. At night, Greek soldiers opened the gates of the enemy city and inflicted a crushing defeat on the enemy.
A computer virus works in a similar way. A Trojan horse is often disguised as an ordinary program by cybercriminals, which, when downloaded, penetrates your computer with malware.
This virus differs from others in that it does not multiply spontaneously, but gets to you as a result of a hacker attack. In most cases, you, unknowingly, download a Trojan to your device.
A Trojan Horse is a virus that can cause a lot of trouble for the user. Read on to learn about the consequences.
Signs of infection
If your computer was attacked by a Trojan, you can find out about it by the following changes in the computer:
- First, the device will start rebooting without your command.
- Secondly, when a Trojan horse penetrates a computer, the performance of the device is significantly reduced.
- Thirdly, spam is sent from your email inbox.
- Fourth, unknown windows open with pornography or advertisements for a product.
- Fifth, the operating system does not start, and if the download is still successful, a window appears with a request to transfer money to the specified account to unlock the system.
In addition to all of the above problems, there is one more - the loss of money from an electronic wallet or confidential information. If you notice that this has happened to you, then after removing the Trojan you need to immediately change all passwords.
Trojan horse (virus). How do I remove it from my computer?
Of course, the penetration of a "Trojan horse" can cause significant harm to the user (for example, financially), but since this is a fairly common type of virus, you can get rid of it using any popular antivirus (Kaspersky, Avast, Avira etc.).
If you suspect that your computer has been attacked by a Trojan, boot the device into Safe Mode and scan the system with an antivirus program. Quarantine detected malware or delete it immediately. After that, open the "Programs and Features" section and get rid of suspicious applications that you did not install.
Sometimes a Trojan horse also blocks an antivirus program. This virus is constantly being modernized, so there are such situations. In this case, you can use one of the special utilities, for example SuperAntiSpyware or Spyware Terminator. In general, find the program that suits you, and then use it to remove the Trojan.
Conclusion
So now you know what a Trojan horse is. The virus, which was discussed in this article, you can remove yourself if it gets to your computer.
Of course, it is better that such a nuisance does not happen to you, but for this you need to install a good antivirus program, regularly update its database, carefully monitor the program's warnings, and also not visit or download anything from suspicious resources.
Before unpacking any downloaded archive, be sure to check it with an antivirus. Also check your flash drives - they should not have hidden files. Remember: a Trojan can cause a lot of problems, so take all measures to identify it responsibly.
Trojans can seriously complicate the life of any computer owner. To some extent, they are similar to viruses, as they are aimed at causing harm to the user. The damage is not necessarily obvious and noticeable, however, one way or another, the operating system is negatively affected. Such a Trojan horse virus can be installed under the guise of useful software or be completely invisible to the user.
Trojan horse concept
A Trojan horse is a malicious utility that differs significantly from the classic type of viruses that are introduced onto a user's computer using their own algorithms. In contrast, the active participation of a person is a prerequisite for the appearance of a Trojan, since the Trojan is not capable of spreading on its own. As a rule, these utilities are disguised as other types of files - from installer packages to multimedia data. By launching such a Trojan horse virus, the user activates the algorithms of the malicious program. In some cases, Trojans become part of a multi-component virus.
Malware injection methods
It should be understood that the goal of an attacker who has created any Trojan virus is to force an end user to launch a file containing its code. Scammers have come up with many effective methods, in most of which a person does not even know about the Trojan's defeat of his PC.
The Trojan program is often disguised as popular packages of software installers and game applications. In the future, such a file is posted on an unreliable file hosting service or a poor-quality software portal. In addition, malware can be picked up in email, social networks, and other similar resources.
The most common scenario is a request to download additional software not from the developer's official website. These can be browsers, updates, games, and other utilities. Also, the user can be persuaded to follow an unverified link on social networks and instant messengers.
Signs of infection
Various symptoms may indicate the appearance of this type of malware on a computer. As a rule, the user finds out about this quickly enough:
In some cases, the program does not manifest itself so clearly, however, side signs are still present. This is especially noticeable for computers with low performance - Trojans heavily load the processor, it rises, because of what. Most of the PC's resources will be used by an unknown process. If any of the listed symptoms is found, it is required.
The illustration below depicts a malicious effect on the system in one case from my practice. Moreover, please note that this malicious process does not load the system 100%, in order to remain unnoticed for as long as possible, nevertheless interfere with the launch of applications. An incomprehensible name immediately catches the eye.
Purpose of the Trojan
As a rule, any Trojan horse is written with a specific purpose. This is mainly enrichment, espionage and settling of personal scores. The consequences for the end user follow from which viruses the Trojan horse belongs to:
- Theft of financial information. Confidential data targeted by fraudsters include logins, passwords, wallet and account numbers, bank card pin codes, etc. In order to secure the user's interaction with Internet banking and payment systems, special security mechanisms are developed for. A striking example of this approach is the input of an additional code, which is sent via SMS or e-mail.
- Stealing account information. Trojans often try to intercept popular web resources - social networks, instant messengers, dating sites, etc. If successful, the attacker begins to extort money on behalf of the user from his friends under various pretexts. Also, the user's page can be used to redirect to specific sites.
- Spam. Malicious software is often used to collect email addresses for subsequent spamming.
- Increase in traffic to the resource. The embedded Trojan will open a pre-selected website in the user's browser, thereby increasing its performance and contributing to the enrichment of fraudsters.
- Cheat downloads of files. As you know, many people pay users for each download of the files they have uploaded. The Trojan horse can increase the number of such downloads and improve the financial condition of the utility developer.
- Computer management. A device infected with a Trojan can be used for hacker DDOS attacks on various Internet resources.
- Destruction of data. Removal of valuable information on the user's computer, as well as damage to some hardware components.
- Collection of personal data of users. Statistical information on the websites visited, favorite programs, movies, music and other aspects of users' daily life collected by trojans forms the basis of marketing research of commercial companies.
- Calls to premium numbers. If a user connects to the Internet using a modem, then the embedded Trojan can periodically make calls to expensive premium numbers.
In addition to these purposes, malware can be used for personal purposes, such as revenge or blackmail. Therefore, it is best to have at least one installed to prevent the pest from entering the computer.
How to remove a Trojan virus
A fairly effective method to avoid the introduction of a Trojan horse is to use it on an ongoing basis. Many utilities are capable of blocking the launch of the Trojan. Although it continues to improve continuously, in some cases it may not detect a threat.
If the antivirus scan did not give results, then you need to carefully study all the operating processes in and try. If the name of the process is unknown and there is a consumption of many processor resources, then there is a high probability that it is a Trojan.
