The computer viruses They are a growing threat that can cause great losses to companies and individuals. Some of these malicious They are created by intellectually motivated people who challenge themselves to disrupt computer security in certain systems.
There are also people considered computer criminals who create malicious, with the purpose of committing serious crimes over the Internet. He Zeus virus was, precisely, created by criminals as a trojan virus highly dangerous, whose mission, among many others, is to steal sensitive and valuable information for you.
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What is the Zeus virus
El Zeus Trojan, also known as Zbot Trojan, It has its origin more than 10 years ago. It was developed by Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev, for the purpose of attacking the United States Department of Transportation, mainly affecting system user data, as well as confidential information.
Later, over the years, around 2011, its creator released the source code of the now famous . This was considered a terrible mistake by affected people, since many hackers They used that code, updating and refining it to then create even more powerful, effective and dangerous derivatives.
As it was modified, this self-replicating program radically changed the purpose for which it was initially designed. Today, its primary mission is to infiltrate and, stealthily, attack your computer and collect any data that is really useful or convenient for the Hacker who developed it.
For example, it collects information about your banking details, emails, and information from your web browsers.
Malware Spread
As a good trojan virus, is propagated in various ways, but always using some other as transportation orTroy Horse” (hence the name Trojan) to reach your computer.
As an example, let's imagine a programmer with great knowledge of virus programming. Our subject uses an email campaign with information of interest to you to propagate his new creation, whose mission is to attack our precious banking information.
In the information in the email it sends, it gives you the possibility of accessing a contaminated link, which you unwittingly click on.
From this moment on, the virus enters your computer and attaches itself to some other host application. Once installed, it begins to scrutinize your information, taking possession of it and subsequently forwarding it to third parties through the web.
Another way to spread is through a which we consider completely harmless. Let us then imagine, taking into account the scenario previously related, our dear friend, the virus programmer, who also infected with Zeus some application or document.
Once the contaminated file is developed, our friend the programmer uploads it to some site on the illegal content download website. Carefully, you decide to download that content, without taking into account that within it, there is a trojan virus highly dangerous. Once on your computer, this program harmful to your system begins to fulfill the mission for which it was created.
Mission of the Zeus virus on our computer
Once it reaches your computer, as programmed in its code, the virus carries out a fierce search for relevant information, gathering it and sending it confidentially to third parties on the web who subsequently use said information to carry out any type of scam or illegal act.
Activation on your computer is almost imperceptible. It is usually installed in folders where the main information of the device is stored. operating system. Also, to hide from the most sophisticated antivirus, it is programmed to encrypt and, so to speak, camouflage itself within the configuration of our system. This makes detecting it a complicated task.
Malware detection
Typically, the first tool used to scan for viruses on your computer is antivirus, which help you detect and eliminate all types of malicious. On the other hand, observing abnormal symptoms is another way to suspect that your system has been infected. There are clear symptoms of this, such as poor performance of our computer, creation of duplicate files, unknown programs or other doubtful present that we have ever seen. This gives us clues to the existence of something suspicious.
Zeus Virus Removal
It is difficult to eliminate this virus, especially once it has completely attached itself to our computer. However, for most of us, the most common and practical alternative is through a protector.
The antivirus current ones offer us complete protection against this and other types of malicious. That said, we can conclude that one of the most efficient ways to debug said virus is by installing a antivirus on your computer. Subsequently, it performs a deep analysis to determine whether or not the virus exists. Consequently, if it is detected, it is deleted along with the contaminated files.
Prevention to avoid viruses or any other malicious software
Prevention is very important to avoid all types of malicious. This powerful virus is highly effective at infiltrating your computer. Luckily for us, we can put the following recommendations into practice and thus avoid it at all costs:
1. Always update our operating system Windows. This way our system will be able to help us detect any threat effectively.
2. Have a antivirus It is necessary to complement the security of our computer with an antivirus, in order to prevent the spread of any malicious that infects or attempts to infect our computer.
3. Examine emails. Review the content of our emails, observe what source they come from and thus determine if an email is reliable or not.
4. Do not download illegal or pirated content from websites. Avoid at all costs downloading movies, music or any other content. This content can serve as Troy Horse for any malicious.
5. Format our computer every year. If our antivirus cannot remove or track some malicious, it is advisable to format it annually. This completely eliminates any virus present on the computer.
Finally, we must keep in mind that, day by day, technology advances, both that which is useful to us and that which causes harm. For this reason, it is always advisable to investigate and be aware of any technological advances, to avoid any type of unforeseen event and protect your computer as much as possible from computer attacks such as the Zeus virus.
Intellectual Property & Technology transfer Manager at Autonomous University of Barcelona
