Trojan Horses, Viruses, and Spyware, Oh My!

There was a time not so long ago, when a Trojan horse was known only as a strategic tool of war from the ancient Greek stories, a virus gave you a nasty cough and a day off work, and spyware was some loony gadget used by Maxwell Smart.

Those were the good old days.

Now, all three of these are well-known and feared as something that can cause your computer to run slow, barrage your screen with pop up ads, steal important and private information, or in the worst of scenarios, turn your prized technological possession into a useless piece of metal and plastic. Unfortunately, the rather despicable individuals who create these programs are generally quite brilliant. It takes equal brilliance to prevent and combat the digital pests who infiltrate computers in the name of profit or simple annoyance.

How and Why Do These Rogue Programs Attack?

For the most part, a virus, Trojan horse, or spyware infiltrates your computer at the behest of its creator to generate potential profit. In some instances, these malicious programs are designed to simply do harm of some sort. For the most part however, writing an effective virus program is a very involved, difficult process, so the desired end result is typically going to be profit of some sort for its creator. Let’s individually take a look at these nasty infiltrators:

Spyware

Spyware can be directed to gather your personal information and then send the details back to the program’s master, leading to identity theft. Spyware is more commonly used to infiltrate your system so that it can take control over the content that is displayed for you. Once a spyware program has been activated on your computer, it can redirect your browser to sites that offer products for sale, oftentimes ones that are very adult in nature. Spyware will also generate pop-up ads at an alarming rate, hoping to get you to click on the pop-ups, sometimes with the perverse promise of stopping pop-ups.

Trojan Horses

A Trojan horse gets its name from the giant, hollowed-out equine fashioned by the Greeks to infiltrate the city of Troy. The similarity with a digital Trojan horse is that the nefarious program will disguise itself as something you actually want to download onto your machine, such as a movie or music file. Trojan horses, like other viruses, are commonly spread through file sharing, peer-to-peer networks, and instant messengers.

Viruses

A computer virus is basically an all-encompassing term for the various types of harmful programs. The simple moniker comes from the fact that these malicious programs are spread from user to user, much like a medical virus.

Malware

The word “malware” is shorthand for “malicious software”. Malware is another broad term that encompasses any program designed to capture your personal information or otherwise profit from infiltrating your system. Malware can be distributed through infected emails, downloading unsafe programs, and any type of file exchanging system.

Preventing Various Computer Threats

The most basic form of protection against these threats to your computer is installing a quality anti-virus software system and then keeping the software regularly updated. Operating a computer with an Internet connection but no anti-virus software is much like running your car without checking the oil. You may get away with it for a while, but eventually there will be a lot of smoke, broken parts, and a very unhappy owner.

Aside from anti-virus software, it is a good idea to keep reputable anti-malware and anti-spyware programs on your machine, and run them periodically to check for infections. Always make sure you are downloading programs from a trusted, official company. Look at forums and software websites to find popular and trusted security programs.

Remedies for Infected Systems

if you discover or suspect that your computer has been infected, immediately run a full system scan with your anti-virus, anti-malware, and anti-spyware programs. After that, one can perform a system restore on Windows computers to reset the entire system to a time before infection.

If all that fails, do an Internet search using the exact words displayed on pop-up warnings, ads, or the URL of websites to which your computer is automatically redirected. You might find that other people have had the same issue, and benefit from their experience in ridding themselves of the problem.