QQ is a popular instant message in China, which is really similar with Facebook. I started to use it frequently when I was in middle school. Once, I got from my friend a message, which stated that my friend wanted to borrow 300 dollars from me because her mom had car accident, and she needed that money to save her mom. Also, it listed an account number that let me transfer money to there. I was shocked, and called my friend immediately. When my friend knew why I called, she explained me that no car accident happened to her mom; it was a fraud. She had many friends call to ask about her mom that day, so she checked her computer and found that the Trojan intruded into her QQ and sent that message to her friends. In case of this trouble happen to me, I installed an antivirus software to protect my computer. From this case, I was curious about what was Trojan, and how it intruded into computer.

Trojan horse viruses formed very early. It was simple when the Internet based on UNIX, but as the development of Windows, it became more complex. Trojan is a malware program, which can steal account passwords by invading computers. It’s a specific type of computer virus, usually is used by hackers. Different from other computer viruses, it neither can self-replicate, nor can infect other files in the computer. It uses masquerade to attract users to download and execute. It will provide a backdoor for the controller to have unauthorized access to the affected computer (Cole 200). The controller can arbitrarily destroy or steal users’ files, even control the computer from distance. Trojans usually will run automatically. It will record the account name and password when users log in their accounts, such as Facebook or online banking account, and send the stolen information to the controller’s email address. All of these behaviors attack computer’s security and commit computer crime.

Reference: Cole, Eric. Network Security Bible. Second ed. N.p.: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Print

As the popularization of the Internet, the viruses are widespread beyond imaging. Trojan, widely known as one of the viruses, is trying to control another computer by using powerful client-server model, which is a central computer provides information and processes to multiple end-user computers. These computers that completely are invaded by Trojan are servers, and hackers use controller to operate servers. Once controller connects with Trojan, the client will own most power of the server so that the client can issue commands in the computer, such as brows, move, copy, and delete documents.

Although there are thousands types of Trojan, they share some same characteristics. The following four of them are more basic. They’ve made people annoyed because they were hard to deal with.

The first one is its concealment. Trojan is similar to remote control (IT Technical Services) but remote control software like team viewer is friendly. So it doesn’t have concealment. On the opposite side, the goal for Trojan is to arrive stole remote control. If the Trojan cannot be elusive, it is meaningless. Secondly, Trojan has strong fraudulence. Trojan is able to use a skill that named bundle deception; binding an undisclosed document has dangerous resulted program with a normal document (Fraud Awareness).

Besides, every kind of Trojan can open terminal automatically by using the communication means of client-server model. In order to open a door, it will connect with some rarely used terminals in TCP or IP protocol (Technology). Finally, Trojan has the ability of self-repair. If you didn’t kill every Trojan in your computer, it will recovery and attack computer because when Trojan intruded into computer, it would immediately finish duplexing backup sets in some corners.

Reference:

“Trojans.” Trojans. IT Technical Services, 17 May 2007. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.

“Fraud Awareness.” Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.

“Types of Trojan Horse Viruses.” – Technology. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.

“What Are Trojans?” Malwarebytes Unpacked. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.

I’ve explained characteristics in my last two posts what Trojan virus is and its four basic characteristics. I’ll show in my final post how Trojan affects the society by looking at an actual event. In recent years, programming virus gradually became a new chain for getting huge profits. However, as this black chain prevailed, more computers were attacked and more people suffered damages.

In 2012, Bo Hung, a server in a club, got a message from QQ said there was a new type of Trojan virus called Fuyun, which can unconsciously stole money from e-bank. Then, he joined a QQ group and rented that Trojan for 3000 Yuan per month. By using this Trojan, Bo, who never learnt professional knowledge about computer science, cheated more than 10,000 Yuan just in one month. How did he cheat people and get money?

At first, Bo bought a disused online store and pretended as camera seller. Bo cheated the customer that he would send a file that had pictures of new designed camera, and told the customer that if he paid the bill immediately, Bo would give him a 70% off discount. Actually, that file had Trojan horse. When the e-bank transferred money, the Trojan would intercept the information and secretly changed the amount of money. After that, the money would be transferred to a specific game account, and then the virtual currency in game could be exchanged to cash.

After police received report, they found out the whole chain that used of Trojan virus through the investment of Bo. The two programmers adapted original Trojan to Fuyun, and they totally got 40,000 Yuan in renting it 71 times. Finally, this event caused nearly 100 victims were involved, 41 suspects were prosecuted, 112 computers, 456 debt cards, and 3 million Yuan uncover. (Cyberspace Theft) It became the largest online banking theft broken by the police in 2012. There is no doubt that Trojan horse led to huge impacts in the society. So, it is necessary to protect your computer in different ways.

Reference:

“Cyberspace Theft.” Prezi.com. Dongjun Shin, 11 Nov. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. (http://prezi.com/kk5dpgypisxy/ccst9029/)