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.