Shoutbox

quote:

---

Originally posted by lappin
my anti virus stopped me saying that my computer had a trojan

---

Anti-Viruses have a vary wide (and inaccurate) detonation of unwanted-ware (nice wide new term there )...much spyware can act like a trojan, and where it may by detonation be a trojan when looked into, it isn't as malicious as the name says. A trojan, that most web users recognise as a trojan are things like Sub7, that can allow someone to remotely control your computer, in smiley central the term is spyware.
The reason people don't know the difference is that most anti-unwanted-ware software developers make the harmless adware, which is just a pain in the ass, sound like dangerous evil things that you must fear...that way they can sell more copies of their programs because they make it sound like they are needed to protect you against things that aren't as dangerous as they actually are. A very good tactic for selling this type of stuff...
And just to prove how wrong some AV's are, take the Messenger Plus sponsor program into consideration. Some AV programs believe that's a trojan. When in fact if you examine it, all it contains is adware...