What is a Trojan Horse And How Do I Remove It?
A Trojan Horse program presents itself as a helpful “user friendly” computer program while in actuality it can cause destruction to ones computer. A Trojan is the beginning of an attack on ones computer; it remains hidden while more destructive threats are being downloaded such as a Bot causing your computer to run sluggishly and behave abnormal.
Trojans cannot spread on their own; they are usually sent through e-mail or links on a webpage. When a Trojan Horse has infected a computer it can access personal folders and sometimes an entire system. More than likely a Trojan Horse will activate a “back door” or a “trap door” which is used to steal sensitive information (ie home address, telephone number, bank statements, etc.) and send it to other computers.
How to remove a Trojan effectively?
- Download SpyBot. This download should be free but keep an eye out for some websites that will try and charge an installment fee.
- Once the download is complete and the program is up and running; a box should appear asking you to complete an update. Complete the update for this will give you more virus definitions. The homepage should show three choices: Binoculars (scans your computer), Recovery (rewinds any spyware you may have installed), and Updates (Spybot usually does this on it’s own.)
- Begin with a scan of your computer. This can be a timely step and sometimes take up to a half hour to complete. You will be able to see the progress of the scan on the bottom of your screen.
- Delete the recommended infected files; Majority of the time you will have to delete all the files. If you are uncertain about a file you can click on it and the information will show up on the right of the screen. If a Trojan Horse is detected you will need to delete the infected files immediately.
- Once the files are removed you may restart your computer to complete the deletion of the infected files. This should finalize the removal of the Trojan and other infectious viruses.
How to protect ones computer?
Computer security specialists suggest that the best protection to a Trojan Horse is a firewall. Firewall programs can easily be constructed to stop imposters looking to steal ones personal information. Log files can be accessed for one to see just how many outsiders are looking to threaten the security of ones computer.
An anti-spyware application can also be helpful when it comes to protecting the security of a computer. These types of applications are a bit more advanced than the average day to day anti-virus programs; they have the skill to detect Trojans and other computer threatening viruses that sometimes slip through a virus scanner.
These two programs will help protect your computer from viruses as well as eliminating potential threats to the security of your computer. Both programs also perform periodic cleansing scans that can detect hidden threats such as a Trojan Horse.
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