Trojans - and how to protect your network against them

Introduction

This white paper outlines what trojans are and why they pose a danger to corporate networks. As early as 2001, an eWeek article reported that tens of thousands of machines are infected with trojans. And this is fast on the rise (InternetWeek.com, January 2004). The alarming fact is that trojans can be used to steal credit card information, passwords, and other sensitive information, or to launch an electronic attack against your organization. The white paper discusses the need for a trojan and executable scanner at mail server level in addition to a virus scanner, to combat this threat.

What is a trojan horse?

In the IT world, a trojan horse is used to enter a victim’s computer undetected, granting the attacker unrestricted access to the data stored on that computer and causing great damage to the victim. A trojan can be a hidden program that runs on your computer without your knowledge, or it can be ‘wrapped’ into a legitimate program meaning that this program may therefore have hidden functions that you are not aware of. (For a quick look at how trojans work, please visit http://kbase.gfi.com/showarticle.asp?id=KBID001671).

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