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There was only one Trojan horse that was left
outside of the city of Troy. It made the people of the city so
happy that they brought it inside and celebrated their newfound
peace. Unbeknownst to them, there were soldiers that were hidden
inside of it and once they were inside the city they
came out and opened the gates - allowing the rest of the Greek army
to come inside.
We have a similar problem today that is happening
with our personal computers. In fact it is so similar that it
is even named after the Greek Trojan horse. These type of
viruses come to us in the form of things that look good but on the
inside they are full of things that are bad. Many people have
heard of them, and even more people are infected with them and don't
even know it. Here are some things that a Trojan virus can do
to you once it is activated.
They say that misery loves company, and it must
be true in the case of a computer virus. Many times they open
a port on your computer that will allow other types of viruses and
malicious software to enter into your computer and install
themselves. The original Trojan horse virus relies on you to
activate it. When you do, it will bring
on board many other types of malware that do not rely on you to
start them up. These viruses can do any number of things, from
totally taking over your system and shutting it down to wiping out
your hard drive or even stealing your personal information. Many
people notice that their computer is continually running slower.
Sometimes there are so many malicious programs running as a result
of the original script opening the floodgates that it even
becomes impossible to start Windows normally. At this point you
will probably need to seek professional help in order to clean your
computer from all of the spyware programs that are running on it.
Some of the other things that they can do seem
harmless enough, but it is still an invasion of your personal
computer. These viruses are easy to make by even inexperienced
hackers and can do such things as opening your CD-ROM tray, hiding
your cursor, opening windows and websites, and forcing your computer
to shut down at specific times of the day. Worse than that,
they can also open the same ports on your computer that will allow
other viruses to enter. Even a light attack now can cause serious
problems down the road.
The best way to avoid getting a virus on your computer is to not open any file that you are unsure
about. You should also run an antivirus program and keep the
definitions up-to-date. Doing these things will not ensure that you
will never get a Trojan horse virus. It will, however, lessen the
odds if you just use some common sense.
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