Beyond Vibrations are Trojans

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There are free Trojan removers on the Internet, but few are regularly updated and some are even Trojans themselves. They are programs that claim to perform one function but actually do another, typically malicious. Trojans can take the form of attachments, targeting your already-infected device and download then installs new versions of malicious programs.

Trojans are a common type of malware which, unlike viruses, can’t spread on their own. This means they either have to be downloaded manually or another malware needs to download and install them. Trojans often use the same file names as real and legitimate apps. It is easy to accidentally download a Trojan thinking that it is a legitimate app.

Online shopping, online banking and general storage of personal information on personal devices have made consumers more vulnerable to identity theft than ever before. You now have to worry about hackers, spyware, and Trojan horse programs. With the right software, hackers can crack your login information including usernames and passwords. With this information, they can access your bank accounts, credit card accounts and other types of accounts.

Spyware and Trojan horse programs can be even more dangerous. They are both forms of malicious software also called malware. Spyware is software that is installed on your computer or smartphone either directly or inadvertently. It runs in the background of your device and secretly monitors different programs. It can be used to monitor your keystrokes, for example, and steal your login information to different sites. It can also monitor your online activity, which pages you visit, what things you buy, etc. Some parents even use spyware to monitor their children's computer usage. It is more deviously and illegally used by con artists looking to steal identities.

In a nutshell, a Trojan malware is similar to spyware except that it is packaged as another program. These programs are much like the ancient story of Troy where the Greeks presented the Trojans with a large wooden horse as a peace offering. While the city slept, Greek soldiers emerged from the horse and attacked.

Thus, it masquerades as something innocuous like a computer game or app. When you download it from the Internet, you also unwittingly download the malware. This program creates what is known as a "backdoor" to your computer or smartphone device , which thieves can use to obtain your sensitive information. Additional sinister uses of Trojan horses can be to spy on you through your microphone and camera, use your email to send spam messages and use your computer to store or traffic illegal files like child pornography.

These programs that infect your device can be there for ages without you even knowing. The best programs are designed to operate stealthily behind the scenes. In some cases, you may notice your application running slowly or unexpectedly quitting. Few people will attribute such problems to malware, however. The most effective way to defend your computer against malware is with a good firewall application. Firewalls are programs that serve as a barrier between your device and outside networks. They restrict unauthorized users from accessing your network.

You can download a free firewall software to protect your computer from internal and external threats, freewares that are designed to be used by both beginners and advanced users. It prevents viruses, worms, spyware, and other malware as well as hackers and other attempts to access or modify your device's operating system.

Microsoft software detects and remove Trojans with Microsoft Safety Scanner, Windows Defender Antivirus for Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, or Microsoft Security Essentials for previous versions of Windows.

Apple itself has now grudgingly admitted, Apple's Macs can indeed also be infected with Trojans, viruses and other malware. Agreed, such infection is less likely than with Windows based units, likely to be less dangerous when it does happen, but the Mac OS is not immune from corruption, just safer from it.

To remove a Trojan horse program from an Android device go to: Settings > Apps > Chrome > Storage > Clear Cache. Within Chrome itself hit the three dots icon at the top right and choose Settings > Privacy > Clear Browsing Data, then tick all the options and choose Clear Data. You can remove Trojan by installing antivirus for an Android app for free from play store.

To date there are no known Trojan horses or viruses that can affect non-jailbroken iPhones.

Meanwhile, the messaging platform WhatsApp is well known for its end-to-end encryption, but recent news called its security into question, when the NSO Group, an Israeli spy firm, injected malware onto targeted phones in order to steal data by simply placing a phone call.

And when you thought that your communications were encrypted, news revealed that Swiss firm Crypto, was said to be CIA-owned, together with Germany’s BND Federal Intelligence Service, and sold its products to more than 120 countries.

Together they rigged Crypto’s equipment to be able to easily break the codes and read the end user's and government’s messages, according to reports by The Washington Post, German television ZTE and Swiss state media SRF.

China did not buy encryption devices from Crypto, which kept it largely protected from the firm’s spying activities.

While, the shunning of Huawei and ZTE is reminiscent of the U.S. government's sudden crackdown in recent times on Kaspersky antivirus software, intelligence officials implied that Huawei, and ZTE devices aren't safe for consumers, but did not explain why.

So, are you really running a higher privacy or security risk if you use a Huawei or ZTE smartphone? Would they be riskier than any other Chinese-made phones? The question was put to some experts in the field.

"Pretty simply, no and no," said George Smith, a senior fellow at the GlobalSecurity.org think tank. "You can't avoid Chinese products, anyway, in the market, so one wonders why they would even get around to saying this."

"The short answer is that all computers, especially mobile devices, carry with them a certain level of risk to everyone's security and privacy," said Heather McKinnon, a spokeswoman for the mobile-security-software maker Lookout.

"This is not specific to ZTE and Huawei, but is something that spans the industry," said Andrew Blaich, a security researcher with Lookout. "The level of risk varies from device to device and manufacturer to manufacturer."

The truth seems that every computer and smartphone device spies on you to some extent, and most have security flaws more so related to the platform's relatively open software model; thus users beware...

Food for thought!