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Trojan Horses

Like the wooden horse of Troy, a trojan is a program which arrives on your PC and, should you stumble across it, often looks quite innocent. They will either sit there and apparently do nothing, whilst quietly monitoring away - much like Spyware - or, on a pre-defined date and time, will perform some action - such as erasing files, logging and sending keystrokes for password retrieval purposes, and things like that. They are not classed as viruses as they do not replicate themselves, although some of their actions are virus-like.

Trojans are detected by most AV and/or Spyware products, and should be dealt with by the same programs as above. Like Spyware and Viruses, the best solution is to regularly scan your PC (at least once a week if you are a heavy user of the internet) and deal with any threats immediately.

Firewall Attacks

I'm hoping that no-one who has read this far is wondering what a firewall is. If you're reading this, that means you're on the internet, and that means you need a firewall. Even those of you who are on dial-up.

A firewall can be either a piece of software installed on your PC, or part of a hardware element (such as a router) that protects network traffic. They contain a set of programs that follow user-defined rules as to what is and what is not allowed access to and from your PC.

Many of us who use Windows XP as our Operating System will have a software firewall installed as standard. However, it is well known that the default Windows XP firewall, whilst effective at blocking inbound traffic, is quite useless at blocking outbound traffic, and some programs can actually turn it off (Huitema, ITPro ). This, of course, can prove problematic should you inadvertently download or receive a file that is malicious, because it will sit there, perhaps transmitting passwords and keystrokes through your firewall without your knowledge.

It is worth getting a third-party firewall such as Sygate or ZoneAlarm to ensure that the security of your system is not compromised (again, both are available in either free or pay-for format, depending on your use) . If you have a router, either wired or wireless, it will have a firewall built in which should prevent most problems.

Free Firewalls

• ZoneAlarm
• Sygate

You can test the effectiveness of your firewall at a few well-established locations on the web. Just click the link, follow the on-screen instructions and within a minute or two you should have some idea as to how secure (or preferably, invisible) you are on the web.

• Gibson Research (Follow the links for "Shields Up!")
• AuditMyPC
• Symantec Security Check

It is also worth visiting websites such as PCPitstop on a regular basis. Here, you can register for free, and have the website perform a free scan and offer potential tune-up tips for the machine in general and advise you about security settings.