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My computer suddenly started making all sorts of noises as if it was working overtime.  So I shut it down and disconnected the broadband.

When I connected again, I got a message saying that it had found a Trojan Horse and disabled it.

My question are
What is a Trojan Horse
What could have been happening to my computer before it was turned off
Why did the security system take so long to spot it at least three minutes.
Has someone downloaded all my files.

ooo nasty, I presume your software programme has quarantined it now? If so you can look up the name of it to understand what it does.

In the meantime here is a basic description from Wikki (not the greatest I know but starters for 10)

Good lukc
1066

It seems to have been generic dx.  and it has now been quarantined.  But what worried me is that the computer was working overtime for several minutes.  I was unable to open task manager, and it continued working even when I put on hibernate.  Switch off the hub, that stopped it, and when I connected again the security system caught it. 

The warning message flashed up on screen for a couple of seconds and then faded, if I had blinked I would have missed it.

What worries me is if my OH is using the machine he might not notice what it happening.

Description of what it does is rather vague.  But presume that for that 5 minutes someone had control of my computer and my information.

I often leave my computer on hibernate so I will stop doing that.  Think I will switch off the hub when I got to bed.

A basic description
Trojan Horse is named after the gift given to the greeks ( a large wooden horse containing soldiers), the same happens on a pc, some harmless programme like a screensaver or picture is downloaded and the antivirus might ask you if you trust the sender, you click yes and the antivirus ignores it.

When you load/run the programme the virus(or other) can then access your pc from behind the security door(antivirus), sometimes it makes a backdoor( another way to access your pc) or takes control of your security, this maybe disabling it or changing the settings (not updating/scanning).
Not all Trojan horses/viruses are there to access your infomation or spy on you. They can be used to send information from your pc to another pc without you knowing.
e.g a hacker wants to cause chaos to a bank or big firm(microsoft), they access you pc using a Trojan horse and this contains a virus, you(or the virus) send emails (containing the virus) to your contacts and they open it because they know/trust who you are, this then infects their pc's with the Trojan/virus.
A few days/months/years later the virus activates at a set time and tries to access the bank/big firm. Because it could be hundreds of thousands of pc's trying to access the company at the same time, the company's internet crashes because it can't handle the demand at one go.
The hacker suceeds.

another example
A child sex ring wants to post information or host a web site but does not want it traced to them. They do  the same as above and access everyones pc. The police find the website and trace it back to someones home, this person has no-idea what's going on as they have a trojan horse/backdoor/virus that is linked to all the other pc's, this makes it nearly imposable to trace it back to the original sender/host.

Sorry if i've worried you now.

Make sure your antivirus is up to date. Then change all passwords on any sites you visit.

Neil

run your pc whilst internet is unplugged, run a full system scan manually and selected everyfolder including the hidden ones, this will take prob about an hour depending how much stuff you have on you pc etc. after that has finished go into internet explorer and go to internet setting, check all security setting + change them till you feel better. manually delete all saved files, history etc. as they like to hide in those folder. also re-set you homepage this will stop I E loading it up in the furture - after that update your antivirus and everything should be ok. dont worry about it. there isnt any new nasty ones out there which have been re-ported. (that i have heard) .

johnny

Thank goodness for Apple computers I've never had a virus since leaving windows five year ago.

Quote from: Vony on August 25, 2009, 18:14:12
Thank goodness for Apple computers I've never had a virus since leaving windows five year ago.

Yes I guess thats the IT equivalent of driving an old car - who's going to bother writing a virus for an apple  ;D

  Bit of a dunce regards PC's, have only had mine since Dec,  a lorra learning

  to do.   I have windows vista, and I am having so much trouble,   Havn't got any other security

  ie, Norton.  I am continually denied downloads, moticons,  and I couldn't even sign in yesterday'

  Any info or experiances would be a blessing !     :-*

important
turn off system restore and reboot your computer ,

you can then turn system restore back on.

mrf94

Quote from: Vony on August 25, 2009, 18:14:12
Thank goodness for Apple computers I've never had a virus since leaving windows five year ago.

Hear,hear.

I ditched Windows for the Ubuntu/Linux system, a virus cannot work in that as the system requires the password to write anything to the system.

Fools.

Quote from: raisedbedted on August 25, 2009, 18:26:22

Yes I guess thats the IT equivalent of driving an old car - who's going to bother writing a virus for an apple  ;D

No one, they know it's pointless!

Quote from: Plot69 on August 26, 2009, 10:33:15

Quote from: raisedbedted on August 25, 2009, 18:26:22

Yes I guess thats the IT equivalent of driving an old car - who's going to bother writing a virus for an apple  ;D

No one, they know it's pointless!

Yes, it's the difference between an old cr which you can repair on the road or the computer controlled car if the control unit packs up.

Yes, do what johnny said, doing a full system scan.

It may not have been the virus making your computer do so much work, but your anti-virus software, it will often do a schedualed scan, which take a lot of processing, check the setting.

You can have viruses on your hard drive, but until they are run they do no harm, so this virus may have done nothing at all, but impossible to say without a detailed look at your computer.

Quote from: Vony on August 25, 2009, 18:14:12
Thank goodness for Apple computers I've never had a virus since leaving windows five year ago.

The first virus I cam across was on an Apple Mac  ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)

I once opened my mailbox and when I tried to read four emails, only the headers were there. A colleague phoned to say the he had inadvertently sent me a virus. My firewall had stopped it dead in it's tracks (and the other three). I had to ask them to send again.