Firms need to defend against trojans, says expert

Posted by Steven Gaskill

IT outsourcing users should make protecting themselves against trojans a key priority, it has been suggested.

Recent research from Sunbelt Software showed that trojan programmes dominated the top ten computer security threats for March this year.

Commenting on the news, Trusteer chief technology officer Amit Klein pointed out that many examples of malware have properties associated with trojans, such as being designed to run maliciously on a system without the user's consent.

Offering tips on how to deal with the problem, the expert said: "Look at the big picture and try to put as many trojan containment products as possible into the various places on the critical paths that the trojan refers to from the outer world to the final payload."

Mr Klein also claimed that IT outsourcing users will have to use a range of security solutions, such as antivirus software and firewalls, to protect themselves from trojan infections.

The Sunbelt Software research revealed that two forms of trojan - Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT and Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen - accounted for more than 35 per cent of malware infections detected last month.