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Article: 5 Types of Nasty Trojans home
 

Beware of PC Trojans
What Are Trojans?
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Wide Variety Of Malware Applications
It is a testament to the growing complexity of spyware and other malware, that there are now so many different categories of malicious software that can be installed on your computer.
 
A Trojan is only one type of malware and yet there are also several sub categories of Trojan that have different characteristics, symptoms, and effects. Typically and usually, though, a Trojan is installed on your computer without your knowledge of prior consent. This is usually done in order to give the hacker that created the Trojan some vestige of control over your computer.

Remote Access Trojans
Remote access Trojans are potentially the most damaging. These give control of your computer and, therefore, access to all of your files and folders to the hacker. In theory they can read all of your personal files, and even your cookies and auto fill preferences. This can give them easy access to your online accounts.

Data Sending Trojans
Data sending Trojans are commonly used for advertising purposes, although again they could be easily used for data theft. As the name would suggest these Trojans take information from your computer and transmit them back to the hacker. In the case of advertising Trojans this information is used to serve adverts on your PC that you are apparently more likely to click.

Destructive Trojans
Destructive Trojans may not result in Data theft but can be damaging anyway. Once the Trojan is installed on your computer it will begin to systematically or completely randomly delete information from your computer. This can include files, folders, registry entries, and important system files. Eventually a destructive Trojan is likely to cause the failure of your operating system and, therefore, your computer.

Proxy Trojans
A Proxy Trojan is less damaging in some ways but can cause untold damage in other ways. Hackers need to hide their identity and their location. A proxy Trojan installs on your computer and is then used by the hacker to access the Internet. Any action they take is then registered to your computer. Often this can be relatively harmless but potentially you could have your IP registered for spamming and you could even be investigated for online crimes.

FTP Trojans
An FTP Trojan acts like an FTP server once it has been installed on a computer. This means that the hacker can download any program or file from your computer and, similarly, he or she can download anything onto your computer. Not only can this, once again, lead to data or identity theft but it also provides hackers with a way to install further malware on your computer to wreak even more havoc.

Other Trojans
More specific Trojans include security software disablers that disable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. These leave you open to attack from a great many sources and because a Trojan is already on your computer it is likely that it can perform other, more damaging actions. DoS Trojans are installed on your computer and while they may not cause you damage they can bring down major websites. They do this by installing on numerous members’ computers from that website. They then bombard the site with requests and cause it to suffer from outage. This has attacked even some of the major e-commerce sites like Amazon.

How We Become Infected By Trojans
Infection from Trojans is alarmingly simple. There are three very common ways to become infected that most computer users perform on a very regular basis. Email attachments can contain disguised Trojans that install without your knowledge. Freeware and shareware software is a veritable haven for Trojan software but even the simple act of surfing the Internet and visiting websites can lead to a Trojan being downloaded on your system.

Conclusion
Trojans are only one class of malware but they are a particularly damaging one. Some Trojans can assist hackers in performing data theft, stealing your personal information even bank account details. The exact effects of a Trojan depend entirely on the Trojan itself and its intended use. However, in all cases, the quick removal is highly advised using automated anti-spyware or anti-Trojan software.
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