"Trojan horses" are an entire category of viruses, and the exact removal
instructions will depend on which one you've got.

  Actually, it's TWO entire categories....
  Traditionally, a trojan horse was a useful- (or at least harmless-)looking
program which carried along some mal behabiour as a covert side-effect.
Rather than a worm spreading itself, it relied on curious or acquisitive
users to download and install it.
  More recently, the term has referred to any piece of software that
provides a covert "back door" which allows a remote hacker to take over a
system.  Facilities offered via such a back door have sometimes included
such nasty tricks as turning on any mircophone attached to the sound card
and so listening in on nearby conversations.  It's possible that the pop-up
message is being sent to you be a remote hacker using such a tool on your
machine.  Note that disabling your antivirus software might be one of the
things the tool is doing.
  Worse yet, because similar tools are sometimes used by administrators of
large company networks, many such tools are not detected/reported by some
antivirus software.

  I recommend installation of a firewall that blocks unauthorized outbound --
 as well as inbouncd -- traffic.  Zone Alarm can do this, the XP firewall
reportedly cannot.  Even better would be something like the Norton firewall
which reports the name of the program attempting access.
  It's quite possible that some of the anti-spyware utilities will be more
successful at finding and removing the infection than a more antivirus-
oriented product.  I'd disconnect from the Internet or LAN while running
them, too.

  Just to be complete, one should consider the possiblility that this is a
hoax using, for instance, Windows Messenger pop-ups (see another current
thread...) to make you *think* you have a problem that doesn't really exist.

David Gillett


On 1 Jan 2004 at 18:23, Billie Smith wrote:

> Could you please tell me how to get rid of the Trojan horse virus?  It pops up that I have one and to run AVG.  But when I run it, it says there is no virus found.  Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
>
> Billie Smith
> [log in to unmask]

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