I keep getting Trojan spyware. I clean them through Immune Protect. A man from Utah is sending these Trojans. How do I block the Trojans and that person?
Repeatedly getting trojans or any form of malware simply shouldnāt happen,
regardless of where theyāre coming from. To resolve this, we need to drop back
to basic security priciples.
In this video excerpt from a recent Ask Leo! webinar, I
discuss the steps that you can take to stay safe.
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Transcript
I keep getting Trojan spyware. I clean them through Immune Protect . A man from Utah is sending these Trojans. How do I block the Trojans and that person?
So, I donāt really know how you are getting them. There are a lot of details that factor into that kind of operation.
The best approach is to set up a strong defense and Iāll just go back to the common thing to making sure that you have a good set of anti-spyware, anti-virus tools in place ā that youāre behind a firewall.
Trojans ā If theyāre coming in through your network, you want to make sure your firewall is there. If theyāre coming through email, then it becomes a matter of making sure that youāre not doing things that actually invite the Trojans in, like clicking on attachments or running files that you shouldnāt be running.
How do you block that person? You donāt. We donāt know who that person is; we donāt know where theyāre coming from. Itās very difficult to identify a specific person for any kind of incoming threat like that; at least with the resources that are available to the average individual ā people like you and me.
So, the only real solution that Iām aware of is to a) make sure your machine is clean because obviously if thereās already spyware on your machine, then all of your defenses are actually for naught because once your machine is infected, it can do anything. And once your machine is clean, make sure it stays clean by having the right set of security software in place.
And Iāll quickly point you at the article I have on my site. Itās actually right there on the homepage. One of the popular answers, āWhat Security Software do you recommend?ā I throwā¦hereās the short version, right, youāll be behind a router, which will act as your firewall, which is exactly the way that Iām operating here.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a fine, fine anti-virus, anti-spyware, malware scanner. Install that. Make sure your machine is up-to-date and if you do travel, if you do take your computer into locations where youāre not behind your own firewall, not behind your own router, make sure you turn on the Windows firewall whenever youāre out and about.
Or alternatively, typically these days, thereās actually nothing wrong with leaving the Windows firewall on all of the time. To be honest, I canāt even remember the state on the computers that Iām looking at here because if itās on, itās just not getting in the way and thatās all I really care about.
The firewall is justā¦if itās not impacting me, then thereās no reason not to leave it on. And Iām able to do what I need to do between all of my machines regardless of, like I said, I canāt even remember whether itās on or off right now.
What about the obvious? While weāre not told how heās getting these trojans or how he knows that itās a guy in Utah, if itās coming in via email, how about setting up a filter that automatically deletes the email from this guy in Utah?
If he actually knows the guy in Utah, has he tried contacting the guy? I had a friend who was unaware that his email account had been hijacked. Once I told him, he changed his password and that ended the spam that was being sent from his email account. Itās possible that this is not much different.
First of all, I find extremely unusual that anyone could āknow that a man in Utahā is sending these trojans. My guess is thereās more to the story, but thatās none of my business.
What I suggest is to immediately contact the FBI Cyber Crimes Unit (I believe thatās the proper unit name). This is the FBIās jurisdiction and I believe is a Federal Felony for each incident. That is if you are absolutely 100% sure you know whoās doing it.
āA man from Utah is sending these Trojans.ā ??? Come onā¦I think a tinfoil hat for your router is the obvious solution here.