what are trojans?
A trojan horse is a malicious program that is disguised as legitimate
software. The term is derived from the classical myth of the Trojan horse.
In the siege of Troy, the Greeks left a large wooden horse outside the
city. The Trojans were convinced that it was a gift, and moved the horse
to a place within the city walls. It turned out that the horse was hollow,
containing Greek soldiers who opened the city gates of Troy at night,
making it possible for the Greek army to pillage the city. Trojan horse
programs work in a similar way: they may look useful or interesting (or at
the very least harmless) to an unsuspecting user, but are actually harmful
when executed.
Trojans are often found in email attachments. Once executed, they
install
on your computer and start doing evil things such as: spam,
unwanted advertising, spying, etc.
Never download blindly from people or sites which you aren't 100% sure
about. The P2P networks (kazaa, bittorent, emule, etc) are responsible for
a big percent of trojan spreading. IRC, DC++, ICQ, YM, etc. are also used
to send files which are or contain trojans.
Beware of hidden file extensions! Windows by default hides the last
extension of a file, so that innocuous-looking "girl.jpg" might
really be
"girl.jpg.exe" - an executable trojan!
Never blindly type commands that others tell you to type, or go to web
addresses mentioned by strangers.
However, even if you strictly follow these rules, you can still have
trojans, because some of them exploit your browser or OS, and install
themselves very silent. That's why is recommended for you to install the
latest updates on your browser and windows.
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