Computer Networking Courses

What you need to know about the Zlob Trojan comes down to understanding that, first of all, this is a method that can end up in the placing of a fake anti–spyware program in which the Trojan virus is hidden. What this means, is that a personal computer can end up with a hidden virus that can lead to a lot of issues related to reboots and shutdowns for computers and networks.

Normally, the first thing a computer user notices when this Trojan horse is trying to enter the computer is a fake pop up that appears that says that the video file which is trying to be viewed needs a new codec — usually related to an ActiveX codec — in order to operate properly. Unfortunately, the Trojan hides within this download and then begins its malicious work.

After the Trojan gains entrance a series of pop ups begin to appear that resemble something that Microsoft might use to warn a user that his or her computer has been infected with a virus. Clicking anywhere on the pop up can trigger the download of that fake anti-spyware program — the most common variants of the fake spyware program are Virus Heat and MS Antivirus — which will actually implant the real Trojan horse.

Many times, the Trojan will also try to masquerade as an executable file that needs to be downloaded and that will also cause the Microsoft Windows Security icon to appear in order to give a more genuine look to the attack and fooled the person into thinking that the antivirus program comes from Microsoft itself. This is particularly devious, so beware.

Once the file is in and up and running a computer user will begin to see a great many problems with the PC, including random reboots and shutdowns. The reboots are caused by an executable file known as zlberfker. Exe, and which is gotten into the Windows Scheduled Tasks files and interrupted its smooth operation. The visible results is all those reboots at random times.

One other thing the Trojan does is cause redirects to sites that may be under the control of certain Russian criminal organizations or entities in that country who want to generate visits to websites that many people might not actually want to visit, including pornographic types.

As to what to do if those pop-up ads appear, the quick answer is to never, ever click on them. Instead, do what’s called a hard shutdown cutting off power to the PC immediately and then waiting a couple of seconds and then rebooting it and ordering a disk scan for consistency in order to ensure that the download was interrupted.

Trojan zlob is a serious problem and should be removed now.