<h1>What is a computer trojan horse</h1>

What is a computer Trojan horse? To start off, I'll put it into perspective. Back when the Greeks were invading the Trojans, the greeks battered against their shield and their walls but could not successfully infiltrate the castle and take over. After so many failed attempts they decided to build a wooden horse that the Trojans would allow past their doors without a fight, and after everyone in the castle was drunk and asleep, because the Trojans thought, "Hey, we won!" The greeks popped out of the "Trojan Horse" and they opened the gates, and the slaughter began.

So, if that little bit of history didn't help you figure it out, heres exactly what it is... When it comes to what a computer trojan horse is, it's a malicious virus or malware they infiltrates a computer through subterfuge. In other words, they trick the computer/firewall/anti-virus/anti-spyware, etc. that they are a "friendly" program, or string of code, or anything else that may "ping" the computer and the computer unknowingly lets it in. Sometimes, a Computer Trojan Horse will simply "follow" another computer in through a backdoor or in an open, unwatched port.

Essentially, once a Trojan Horse gets in, they can turn into things like Antivirus 2009, XP antivirus pro and any other slew of malware meant to look like an anti virus program. By the way, once you get these, they usually disable your internet, stop you from using Ctrl + alt + delete, disable your system restore (even though it hides in your system restore) and essentially bug the snot out of you until you decide to purchase their fake anti virus software because you have been infected by 27 viruses, 15 malware, and 200 spyware!!! Oh my! But, don't worry, for the low low low low cost of $49.99, they will happily "remove them" for you! Of course, if you do this, they will take your money onto an offshore account never to be seen again, and the program still won't disappear.

So, for those of you who wanted to know what is a computer trojan horse, now you know. The best thing you can do when it comes to a computer trojan horse is to prevent it. Once they get in, they can be a REAL pain to get out. I have several other posts on how to remove them but they usually are not fun and are very time consuming.

To prevent such a thing, you need a decent anti virus program, even an anti spyware program can help as well. Why? Because like I said before, if a door is opened for a piece of spyware, and a trojan downloader follows it in, the trojan downloader will simply open up other ports in your computer and let more in (just like the greeks did to the trojans).

What else can you do to prevent them? Well, I've said it before in other posts but I'll mention it again: Don't open e-mail from people you don't know, don't click strange links from friends or family that look like this http://www.gejrgegepoijk1123pfergfe.com/. Those are VERY OFTEN a virus or trojan horse attempting to get into your system, possibly keylog you, or phish you out. None of those end well, they usually end up identity theft and the like. Thats all you'd need is to receive an e-mail from uncle fred, click "his" link to view his "cool picture", then it asks you to create a new account using your username and password from your e-mail, so you type that in, and they put a keylogger on your machine and you never receive the cool picture from uncle fred. Not cool. Then, to make it worse, they keylog ALL your usernames, passwords, etc. and have full access to your bank account, social security number, checking, stocks, whatever you have.

So, a word to the wise, it's not so much the question, what is a computer trojan horse? It's what can I do to prevent a computer trojan horse?

TechSavvyT
Answering all your obscure virus, malware, trojan horse, adware, spyware, rootkit, boot sector virus and worm needs.