Last year my computer was one of the first to get hit by a new Trojan virus. We visited the wrong website or downloaded something that had the Trojan virus imbedded into it. We almost lost our computer and everything in it. Thank goodness we back up our computer every night. The Trojan virus was so new that our computer antivirus security did not know how to fight it. We actually had to contact the people who produced our antivirus security software and provided us with daily updates. We gave them access and control of our computer. They managed to lock down the virus, stopping it from affecting out computer any further.
They immediately set about sending out an update that would simply block this virus from infecting other computers using their antivirus security. They let us know that our computer would be infected for a bit, but that it was contained and would not be able to do any more damage. Once they had found a way to kill the virus they would send us an update and that would clean our system.
The Trojan we got hit with was designed to damage our computer. It was programmed to destroy data. There are other types of Trojans. Some are programmed to give a third party remote access to your computer. This is considered a remote administration Trojan. This can be to see your information or just to mess around with it. It is often used to steal passwords or change the victim’s registry. As well as upload, download, execute files and more. Scary thought is that they can actually turn on a web cam and see what you are doing anytime. A downloader/dropper is one that whole purpose is to download a different program onto your computer.
Usually a remote administration Trojan program is what they download to your computer. A server Trojan creates a file server on the victim’s computer. This lets the hacker upload or download files. A server Trojan is often used to upload a remote administration Trojan, giving control of your computer to the hacker. Another type of Trojan used to do this is one designed to disable security software. It lets the hacker get in past your security, usually with the intent to download a remote administration program.
There is one unusual type of Trojan going around. The purpose is not to destroy your data or to get control of your computer to get your information. No it is about getting control of your and many other computers so that at a specific time they all attach a third parties computer. This was done to yahoo.com not that long ago.
In May, a new scare, one of many current health care issues in the news, erupted over soft drinks because of evidence that an ingredient known as sodium benzoate may cause serious cell damage. The controversy was based on research from a British university suggesting that this common preservative found in soft drinks like Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.
Interestingly, this has been known for some time. According to Vision.org life and health writer, Alice Abler, in a current science article about the preservative much of the same information was published eight years ago in Free Radical Biology and Medicine (December 1999) by University of Sheffield professor Peter Piper.
Consumers who are worried by this health care issue should be reassured that sodium benzoate is quickly absorbed into the human gastrointestinal tract and metabolized, resulting in hip uric acid, which is soon excreted. Benzoic acid and sodium benzoate are not considered carcinogenic and are often added to certain acidic foods to slow the growth of molds and fungi. However they can combine with ascorbic acid in beverages to turn sodium benzoate into a very toxic substance: benzene.
In mid-May 2007, beverage giant Coca-Cola settled a lawsuit alleging that sodium benzoate could combine with the ascorbic acid in the beverages to create carcinogenic benzene. After Coca-Cola and PepsiCo removed the ascorbic acid known as vitamin C from beverages, both companies maintain that their products are safe for human consumption.
Benzene is also often found in drinking water, although U.S. government standards allow no more than five parts per billion of benzene in drinking water, and the World Health Organization recommends no more than ten parts per billion.
Benzoate is naturally present in fruit and some other foods--perhaps in just the amount that is safe for the human body. Concerned consumers should pick foods and beverages as close to their original form as possible, avoiding any possible health care issues.
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