It seems like there have been millions of faq's and threads about spyware, but not much on trojans and worms. These are more virus related, but not exactley "viruses." Viruses are small sets of code that can cause harm to a computer system. Trojans and worms typically have the same goal, to collect data. They have been known to get passwords, credit card information, and with the popularity of online banking, even account numbers and social security numbers.
Yes, there are a few differences between worms and trojans, but like i said above, they pretty much have the same goal. One difference is worms spread, most the time like wild fires, to other computers and networks. I'm sure you've heard of MyDoom. MyDoom was a worm that spread so fast and ate up so much bandwidth that the entire internet experienced slow downs. Trojans, however, tend to stay put. Typically they gather data and send everything to its creator. Another difference is worms are used to exploit vulnerabilities in your system. Once it finds a hole, it can send that information to its creator so they can do more damage to your system.
What's real dangerous is when a worm carries trojans with it. So when it spreads, it infects a computer with its trojans to cause more damage. This is a lethal combination.
Now that I've scared you into never wanting to go onto the internet again, I'll show you the best program I have ever used to find and destroy these trojans and worms. It's called TDS-3. TDS-3 is not a fancy program with cool graphics and neat little buttons (adaware, spybot etc.). It looks DOS based. The only thing is it's not completely free. It gives you, i think, a 90 day trial, but for an emergency it's awesome.
Click on
this link to download it.
To update TDS-3,
click here and download the update. The update itself has to go into the program folder Where TDS-3 is stored. Typically the location of this folder is C:\Program Files\TDS3. Place the “Radius-1.td3” file (The update) into the TDS3 folder and tell it to replace the existing file. The program is updated.
When you start the program go to the top to System Testing, and click on full system scan. This will scan your entire computer for malicious files. Any files the scan finds will be displayed in the bottom window of the program. Anything that says “Positive Identification” right mouse click and delete. The scan may have picked up “Suspicious File Names”, if this happens USE CAUTION! These are not always malicious files. They may be files that are important, but the program just does not recognize them.
Note: This program takes a lot of computer power, so you may not be able to do anything else on the computer while the program is scanning.
I hope i've shed some light on what trojans and worms are and how dangerous they are. Let me know!
Info: Whats the difference between viruses and trojans/worms?
04-19-05
Info: Whats the difference between viruses and trojans/worms?
