Trojan Horse Viruses - 50% of You Have at Least One Trojan Virus on Your PC

"I'm sure most of you have heard of the famous Trojan horse story? If not then very quickly thousands of years ago Greece was at war with a city called Troy. The Greeks couldn't beat the Trojan army so they pretended to sail away. But before they did they left a huge wooden horse as a gift to the Trojans. The people of Troy celebrated their victory and brought the huge wooden horse inside the city walls. Later that night Greek soldiers crept out and opened up the gates of Troy to let the Greek army flood in.

So when they discovered computer viruses that sneak into computers pretending to a be a harmless piece of shareware or freeware the name Trojan was used and it's stuck ever since. Trojans are sneaky devils because you believe that you're downloading a useful piece of software or maybe a funny screen saver. Ten minutes later you're stuck in virus hell and having to clean up a digital mess.

One of the latest ways for them to trick you into downloading a virus is to have a pop-up appear on your screen warning you that your computer has viruses. Then you're asked if you want them to clear out these viruses with a free scan. One click later and your computer will now be riddled with trojan viruses.

So what happens next? Well the trojan does what's called ""payload delivery"". This is when the virus activates itself and does whatever it was designed to do. Some viruses are annoying and some are extremely dangerous - it's kinda potluck on what type you wind up infected with. The more serious ones can wipe a hard drive clean in moments. Other trojans just sit there and send user data from your computer back to the virus creator. Other ones can give somebody backdoor access to your computer - you won't even know they're connected to you. Once connected they can do anything they want and can see exactly what you're doing.

You want to avoid getting trojan viruses? There are four easy steps to make this possible.

1. Make sure you have a properly updated anti-virus package installed on your computer.

2. Make sure you're using a good firewall package.

3. Never download any files you're not sure about - even if friends send them to you.

4. Never click on any links in e-mails, instant messages or Facebook pop-ups.

The best computer security tool you have is the one that's attached to your shoulders - using common sense with some basic computer tools is all that you need to keep your computer pretty much 100% free of viruses and other such junk."