Trojan and Virus

  • Thread starter Thread starter Heather
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H

Heather

HELP

Whats the difference between a trojan and a virus?
I have the PW Steal.Trojan virus -- how do I get rid of it? Is it bad? Does
my computer have to be on in order for it to be working??

It steals passwords.... should I change mine? Just the passwords or user
names too???

People say to scan and delete it in safe mode... why safe mode? Norton can't
delete it so why would it work in safe mode????

HELLLLPPPP
 
In
Heather said:
Whats the difference between a trojan and a virus?
Click to expand...


Technically the word "virus" just means self-replicating code. It
doesn't have to do something malicious to be a virus (although in
practice, of course, all, or almost all, are malicious).

A Trojan Horse (often loosely called just "Trojan") is just the
name for malicious code that appears to be a normal application.
The difference between it and a virus is that a Trojan Horse is
not self-replicating.

Also note that the term "Trojan Virus," which you sometimes see
thrown around, really doesn't exist. It's one or the other, not
both.

That's the technical answer for which you asked, but in practice,
the difference is very minor and hardly matters. In practice,
they are both malicious programs, and rarely, if ever, do you
need to distinguish between the two types.


I have the PW Steal.Trojan virus -- how do I get rid of it? Is it
bad? Does my computer have to be on in order for it to be working??

It steals passwords.... should I change mine? Just the passwords or
user names too???

People say to scan and delete it in safe mode... why safe mode?
Norton can't delete it so why would it work in safe mode????
Click to expand...


I have no personal experience with this, but there are apparently
a number of variants of it. For removal instructions, go to
http://www.symantec.com/search/ and do a search on it.
 
Heather said:
HELP

Whats the difference between a trojan and a virus?
Click to expand...

Simplified explanation - a virus is self replicating, a trojan disguises
itself as something else. A virus attaches itself to another program (or
replaces part of the program.) A trojan says it does one thing (disguises
itself as a game, for instance) but when the user runs it, it does something
else (either in addition to what it says, or instead.)
I have the PW Steal.Trojan virus -- how do I get rid of it? Is it bad?
Click to expand...

http://vil.nai.com/vil/alphar.asp?char=P - look up the specific version
reported. All information should be listed with it.

Does
my computer have to be on in order for it to be working??
Click to expand...

Just like any other computer program, yes.
It steals passwords.... should I change mine? Just the passwords or user
names too???
Click to expand...

Read about which variant it is, and what's been stolen - you won't need to
change user names (or Windows user names and login passwords.)
People say to scan and delete it in safe mode... why safe mode? Norton can't
delete it so why would it work in safe mode????
Click to expand...

In normal mode, it may have files in use. Safe mode, it won't. (Simplified
explanation.)
 
In



Technically the word "virus" just means self-replicating code. It
doesn't have to do something malicious to be a virus (although in
practice, of course, all, or almost all, are malicious).

A Trojan Horse (often loosely called just "Trojan") is just the
name for malicious code that appears to be a normal application.
The difference between it and a virus is that a Trojan Horse is
not self-replicating.

Also note that the term "Trojan Virus," which you sometimes see
thrown around, really doesn't exist. It's one or the other, not
both.

That's the technical answer for which you asked, but in practice,
the difference is very minor and hardly matters. In practice,
they are both malicious programs, and rarely, if ever, do you
need to distinguish between the two types.
Click to expand...

Well, strictly speaking there is an important difference in that a virus
can infect without user intervention whereas a trojan requires action on
the part of the user, even if it's just clicking on a web-page link.

Steve
 
Thank you!!! So Windows loggin names and passwords I shouldnt worry about
changing? Just programs and subcriptions?
 
In
Steve Nielsen said:
Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

Well, strictly speaking there is an important difference in that a
virus can infect without user intervention whereas a trojan requires
action on the part of the user, even if it's just clicking on a
web-page link.
Click to expand...


OK. My point was that once you've got it, it doesn't matter a
whole lot to you whether it's a virus or a trojan.
 
In

that a




OK. My point was that once you've got it, it doesn't matter a
whole lot to you whether it's a virus or a trojan.
Click to expand...

True, except to maybe help avoid getting hit again.

Steve
 
In
Heather said:
Is there any way to tell what program the trojan is disguising itself
as?
Click to expand...


It's whatever the name of the Trojan file is. Go to the Symantec
site I mentioned for more info.
 
If you have something bad on your computer you first get rid of it. Then you
worry about what repercussions you might experience.

You give the impression that if the problems are not bad enough that you
aren't going to do "anything" about it!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
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