What's a Trojan?

[AngelWolfie]

I went to a site I was not familiar with (forgot the name though..) And a pop-up thing from my anti-virus program thing came up. If there is something wrong, it usually says 'A virus has been detected' but just a few minutes ago, it said 'a Trojan has been detected'. What does this mean?
I'm doing a virus scan now, will that help any? Are these 'Trojan' things serious?

 

[Gr8person62.2]

Yes, Trojan things are very serious! Trajans are viruses, if thats what you wanna call them. Unlike normal viruses that corrupt your data, Trojans leave backdoors open for attackers. Just as long as you have a trojan, anyone can use it to gain access to your computer and do whatever they want. Sometimes they also have code that can corrupt data, send data back to the creator and other malicious things. What you should do is close all internet connections, scan for viruses, get rid of it and never, EVER go near that site again :)

 

[aaaaaa]

Trojans aren't viruses.
They just create a vunerability for someone to gain access.
Yes, they are serious, I'd have your AV Package remove it.

 

[Master Kwesi Nkromah]

Lol, I was about to say somthing like"

I hate sites like those dude... Unless your virus program informed you of the "Trojan " I wouldn't worry about it. Esepecially if you were informed in a popup window! It was mostlikely an advertisement built to scare you into buying some "corney" antivirus package.

​

But that was before i read that your AntiVirus program did inform you.. lol.. hehe silly me. If that's the case, you did the right thing. "Trojans" can be very serious and should be removed when detected. Your antivirus program should be able to remove it for you but just incase i suggest visiting the progam's official site to get the latest updates. If you have somthing like norton, you should be able to download a program that will update you completly or have norton update itself automaticly

 

[PGN]

They call them 'Trojans' because A long time ago, the Greeks used something called a 'Trojan Horse', A horst made of wood pretending they surrendered and it was a gift. They're enemies opened the gate and let the Greeks bring it in, and late at night, when they were sleeping, Greek soilders were inside of the Trojan Horse, so they got out, in did their attacking....

So, a trojan pretends to be another application, but it's not...

Here are some things I've seen be able to do:
? Disable the firewall
? Open any ports
? Create an account called "Hacker" unseeable in the login screen
? Steal your password hash and e-mail it to the attacker [but you won't see it being e-mailed unless you saw it in the Force Quit window]
? all of the above...

So, be careful with what you download, and if you are on a user account and it asks for the admin username and password...
1. You must know EXACTLY what it is and what it does
2. Ask a freind if he's used it to make sure...
3. Use an Anti-Virus Scanner to check the file
4. Check with your System Administrator, since he/she will be typing in the password anyway...

^Hope this helped!

 

[AngelWolfie]

Lol, I was about to say somthing like"

I hate sites like those dude... Unless your virus program informed you of the "Trojan " I wouldn't worry about it. Esepecially if you were informed in a popup window! It was mostlikely an advertisement built to scare you into buying some "corney" antivirus package.

​

But that was before i read that your AntiVirus program did inform you.. lol.. hehe silly me. If that's the case, you did the right thing. "Trojans" can be very serious and should be removed when detected. Your antivirus program should be able to remove it for you but just incase i suggest visiting the progam's official site to get the latest updates. If you have somthing like norton, you should be able to download a program that will update you completly or have norton update itself automaticly

My anti-virus program is McAfee not Norton...But a virus scan or something would help, wouldn't it? *is confused..* ._.;;

 

[aRedMoon]

Yeah, do a virus scan. Most virus scanners take care of Trojans too.

 

[IceKitten]

Trojan is something else, but meh...