Trojan Attacks And Network Security Essay.

Types of Trojan Attacks

Question:

Discuss about the Researching Trojan Attacks for Network Security.

The purpose of making this report is to emphasize on essential topic of network security. Nowadays, all people are connected through network solutions with each other. From communication to sharing of content everything is done on internet and hefty amount of information is transferred in this process. Networking has become a proficient way to connect with people worldwide for business and other purposes. There are several benefits of using network connections but there are also some security concerns connected with its usage. The main concerns related to network security includes virus attacks like malware, hacking, phishing and other vulnerable attempts by cyber-criminals. Here in this report, I will discuss about Trojan attacks which is considered highly favored means of attacks.

The main reason to conduct this research on Trojan attacks is that this threat has modelled a serious threat to network users. Trojan horse is a type of malware which is very much vulnerable for users and cause damage of information that is stored into network database and also migrate over networks (Accuwebhosting.com, 2017). The different variety of Trojan viruses are available on internet landscape and it performs variety of tasks. Some Trojan attacks are programmed to take full control of users of computer, to obtain confidential information and to insert more malware on victim’s computer. The current and famous Trojans are Backdoor Trojan, Downloader Trojan, Remote Access Trojan and DDoS Attack Trojan. Every type of Trojan is harmful and hard to control. In upcoming paragraphs I will discuss about these latest Trojan Attacks in detail.

Following are some latest Trojan attacks that must be in knowledge of computer users:

• Backdoor Trojan
• Downloader Trojan
• Remote Access Trojan (RAT)
• DDoS Attack Trojan
• Infostealer Trojan

This type of Trojan has potential to create a backdoor on users of computers. This backdoor enables a hacker to access to the system to control it, to steel data and download more malware on that system (Adrc.com, 2017). A computer that has installed backdoor Trojan that is also known as Zombie and Bot. With the help of this Backdoor Trojan, attackers can terminate tasks and processes, change settings of computer, download miscellaneous files and upload files and other content of a computer (Dimitrova, 2017). Moreover, today it is also possible that with the help of back door various criminal activities can be performed to earn money. In this earning process different schemes like pay per install, distribution of spam emails and harvesting of confidential information of users are implementing and high revenue is generated (Biovisualtech.com, 2017).

Backdoor Trojan

It is also a current type of Trojan. The key purpose of this Trojan is to download additional content onto the infected computer and this additional content involves additional pieces of malware. It is very malicious and download into computers with some dishonest means such as with an attachment of emails or images that are downloadable for customers and spread virus into whole system. This type of Trojans can easily installed into computer system without any kind of user interaction and exploits whole security of computer without knowledge of users. It is also a most vulnerable type of Trojan and highly prefer to use by professional hackers.

Through this Trojan, full control of computer system can be provided to attackers. Remote Access Trojan is commonly known as RAT. It is basically a malware program that consists of a backdoor to get admin control over whole system. Mostly RAT is downloaded unnoticeably with a user-requested program and this program can be a game or an email attachment. By getting access on host system with the help of RAT, virus can be spread into other connected systems easily. The main operations that can be done attackers after getting access on system with RAT include proper monitoring of behavior of users by using keyloggers and other spyware, access of confidential information such as social security numbers and personal information of users and it also activate webcam and recording video of system. Furthermore, it is also possible that by using remote access Trojan attackers can also take screenshots, format drives and can distribute viruses and malware. So these are very bad impacts and damages of remote access Trojan. Another important thing about RAT is that it is very difficult to detect and even it does not appear in list of running tasks in a computer systems. Therefore, without any intimation of users RAT attack is implemented by attackers.

This type of Trojan is commonly known as DDoS and it also causes so much harmful impacts. DDoS Trojan is basically designed to take down a network and it is done by flooded it with traffic. A third party server is seized by DDoS Trojan and problem of network congestion increased. Due to this problem, server stops to give response. There is no availability of appropriate solution for resolving this problem and not even rebooting of server can stop the attack. But one option to stop this attack is to halt the hack tool program. If DDoS Trojan is installed into a computer system then it will restrict system to connect with network and user cannot open a single website.

Downloader Trojan

The main objective of this Trojan is to snip data from infected computers. The main confidential knowledge is collected by infostealer Trojan and it is sent to the predetermined location. The collected information can be financial, personal or can be related to compromised computer. But it is mostly seen that combination of this whole information is hacked by this Trojan. Once information regarding login credentials, financial information and other information regarding particular websites is gathered by infostealer Trojan then it is sold in black market by attackers.  This is the most vulnerable impact of this type of Trojan.

Now on the behalf of above discussion, it is cleared that latest Trojans are very much vulnerable and it is necessary to control them by using available tools and techniques. Now in next segment of this report, I will discuss about most vulnerable platforms of Trojan (Malwarebytes Labs, 2017).

Trojans and other types of malware have become big problems for all compute users. This harmful program has potential to attack on a whole system and damage it (F-secure.com, 2017). There are different types of platforms that are targeted by Trojans but MS-DOS and Windows are very much common among them (Protalinski, 2017). According to analysis, it is found that for Trojans and other types of viruses have one aimed platform to damage and to make it vulnerable for computer users and that is MS-DOS and Windows 95 which is successor of DOS platform. The main reason of this is popularity of Windows and DOS among people worldwide. Moreover, large amount of software solutions are based on DOS platform that is why it can be used for wide distribution of Trojan attack on systems. Besides this, it is also found that DOS and Windows are less secured as compared to Macintosh and Linux. These both platforms are very much vulnerable for Trojans and viruses. That is why most of the Trojan attackers can easily obtain data from systems or software solutions that are based on conventional platforms like DOS. In this case, it is responsibility of developers to be very careful while developing applications and software solutions on base of both DOS and Windows (Engelfriet, 2017).

After knowing about vulnerable platforms where Trojans can easily put its bad influence to large extent, now in next segment of this report I will discuss about methods that can be used to get prevention against Trojans (Server Intellect, 2017).

Remote Access Trojan

The above discussed currently used Trojans and their damages are required to control as quickly as possible. In this situation, there is no doubt to say that bad impact of Trojan can be controlled to some extent by using some tools and techniques that are developed by developers. These techniques are known as prevention techniques and these are listed as below (Usa.kaspersky.com, 2017):

• Use of Anti-Virus Software
• Never do Computer Startup with Floppy Disk
• Monitor Downloaded Programs at Regular Basis
• Do not Unknown Email Attachments
• Take Regular Backup of Confidential System Files

Anti-virus software solution is one of the essential techniques of prevention. This software must be installed into system of every user and the configuration of anti-virus is very easy. The main purpose of anti-virus is to detect Trojan or other viruses from users’ systems and give alert message to user (Trusteer, 2017). It is done by raising a flag by anti-virus at detection of any unknown harmful entity. Whenever, user gets any indication like this then he should immediately remove that entity from system. Moreover, with detection anti-virus can also fix the malware (SearchSecurity, 2017).  

Another way to get prevention from Trojan is that never use floppy disk for computer startup in drive A because infection rate of floppy disk with virus and Trojans is high (Manes, 2017). Therefore, if a user wants to use floppy disk then he or she has to make uninfected recovery disk. Otherwise, Trojan infected floppy disk has potential to raise boot-sector virus at time of computer startup. The main reason behind the most of the Trojans and virus attacks is innocence of users that they do not carefully checks unknown or absurd entities that are entering into their systems (Symantec.com, 2017).

A computer user downloads several things from internet such as documents, images, audio and videos etc. But before download these programs into system, its monitoring is necessary to identify Trojans, viruses and worms in it. Trojans are attached with these materials by hackers in hidden form so that users could not find that. In this case, only virus detectors or spyware can be used for detection purpose. It is an appropriate way to restrict viruses to enter into system (Us.norton.com, 2017).

It is commonly observed that several emails are received at daily basis by computer users that are connected with internet and they have accounts on social sites. Some emails are spam and fake that must be deleted by users in one shot. Basically what hackers do? They send harmful Trojan scripts in form attachments via emails to users from unknown email addresses. When these emails are opened by users then harmful scripts are executed and entered into users’ systems and it is difficult for users to know that what is happening with their systems. In this way, Trojans attack in invisible way on the computer systems. This can be restricted if users will immediately delete unknown emails without reading them (Webopedia.com, 2017).

DDoS Attack Trojan

The regular backup of systems files and other important files is considered to be most helpful option to get prevention from virus and Trojan attacks as I have discussed in this report. This backup can be used to recover important files of system and database can also be recovered.

These are some key techniques that must be implemented both at users and developers’ level to control the vulnerable Trojan attack at some level. This small level protection can stop a bad entity to enter into system or networks.

Conclusion

To sum up, I can say that Trojans and its damages for computer systems and networks is a critical and serious topic to discuss. Through this report, I have tried to provide appropriate information regarding current Trojans and their way of affecting people. This information must be taken into consideration seriously by users and developers, otherwise heavy loss of information can occur. As discussed above, by using some important techniques Trojans and other virus attacks can be controlled. So those techniques should be used. Furthermore, users should obtain information from internet and other sources to tackle vulnerable virus attacks, their affects and remedies. Whether there are several new versions of Trojans are introduced by hackers but on other prevention procedures are also developed.

References

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Adrc.com. (2017). Virus, Worm and Trojan Preventation. [online] Available at: https://www.adrc.com/sm/virus_prevention.html [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

Biovisualtech.com. (2017). Tips for preventing VIRUS, WORM and TROJAN HORSE infections by Bob J. Valkovski. [online] Available at: https://www.biovisualtech.com/preventing-virus.htm [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

Protalinski, E. (2017). Cross-platform Trojan attacks Windows, Intel Macs, Linux | ZDNet. [online] ZDNet. Available at: https://www.zdnet.com/article/cross-platform-trojan-attacks-windows-intel-macs-linux/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

Engelfriet, A. (2017). Infected! Computer viruses and Trojan horses (in Security > Viruses @ iusmentis.com). [online] Iusmentis.com. Available at: https://www.iusmentis.com/security/viruses/viruses-trojans/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

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