Trojans: The Enemy in Disguise

For all of us that have watched the movie Troy remember what the Greeks did. Yeah they won the battle by using deception. It is all in the game of war. The point was not about winning or losing the battle but rather how they did it. The Greeks hid under the disguise of a giant horse, which the Trojans thought was a parting gift.

They forgot, who gives gifts nowadays, and that being a giant horse made of wood. A horse made of wood for God's sake! How do you cut so much wood without chainsaws, and carry them to make a horse? They surely did not have highways back then. Things to consider when something looks too good to be true.

Well apparently the Trojans did not bother taking that into consideration and took the horse as a present. And what a gift it was, filled with Greek soldiers, that came out of hiding when the rest of the world was asleep. I guess they did not have guards working in shifts like we do now.

So when the rest of the world (world refers to Trojans' occupied land) was sleeping they managed to ravage the city, took down the king. We all know when you kill a king you become a king replacing him, ah the good old days. The Greeks were in-charge, and just when the Trojans thought they had won, they lost it big time.

They put their guards down and let their sworn enemies in, talk about not having customs to check shipments. The story of Troy has been told. So what does this have to do with computing? Well two things, one the name Trojan horse and second the tactics. Unlike scare tactics this will make you cry for a long time.

In the world of computing a Trojan horse does exactly what the Greeks did. Impersonate something that is harmless or appealing and when the time is right unleash the fury. A Trojan horse is a software that promises to do something, but does something else as well.

It might to what it said, but the problem is it tries to do more. It then ravages your system, looking for connections back to its creator or inviting more of its friends. Yeah I know everyone has an anti-virus installed, but the Trojan horse is not a virus at first but contains codes that are viruses.

Trojan Horses are normally downloaded as software, or when you click an unknown link on the internet. The anti-virus does not stop any installers from coming in, so here they come with all their wits. Once in a Trojan horse can act as a keylogger, i.e. it takes into account all the keys that you are pressing on your keyboard.

This information is then sent to the creator of the Trojan horse. This would not sound much when internet banking was not available, since you now do banking online it is something to worry about. Apart from that Trojan horse also opens back doors to allow more of its friends in. They seriously jeopardize privacy and security.

So now let's see what we can do, firstly guys don't surf too much porn, these software lurk over there like a snake under dead leaves. Secondly and this is actually most important try not to use pirated software, try to get this straight nothing is for free, you should have learned that from the Trojans by now.

Apart from that, anything on the internet that claims it can do something do Google the name. You can always check on something, on what it really is. You have to give the advertiser benefit of the doubt. When you Google, you can actually see people that have been cheated (if they have been) before this post in forums or blogs.

Do read the posts and blogs thoroughly as you might discover some surprises at the end. Never click on any pop-ups. Always keep your computer's anti-virus updated, always update windows, please don't forget to install only original software. If you can't afford original software, there are plenty of open source software.

Open source software might no be as good as something you have to buy, but it is good to improvise legally. Well you wouldn't want someone to steal from you would you? Well I hope this helped, to shed some light on what a Trojan horse is and what it can do. Next time we shall discuss about other threats.

Oh one more thing, the soldiers in the horse did open the gates of Troy and let an entire Greek army in. Just like it does in a computer.