Trojan horse found responsible for child porn

Not sure where else to put this. Kind of scary.

A man has been cleared of child porn charges, after investigators found that an Internet attacker was responsible for the presence of illicit images on his PC


A man accused of storing child pornography on his computer has been cleared after it emerged that his computer had been infected by a Trojan horse, which was responsible for transferring the images onto his PC.


Julian Green, 45, was taken into custody last October after police with a search warrant raided his house. He then spent a night in a police cell, nine days in Exeter prison and three months in a bail hostel. During this time, his ex-wife won custody of his seven year old daughter and possession of his house.


This is thought to be the second case in the UK where a "Trojan defence" has been used to clear someone of such an accusation. In April, a man from Reading was found not guilty of the crime after experts testified that a Trojan could have been responsible for the presence of 14 child porn images on his PC.

news.zdnet.co.uk...

So, seeing as it is EXTREMELY easy to install a trojan on your own PC...

I can see a bunch of perverts doing this first thing out of the gate.

This isn't the first time things like this have happened, its actually rather common.

Once again it pays to advertise! Even if you are having sex alone use your Tojan for protection.

tut tut

Is Trojan Horse a virus?

Dear m-t-e
Not quite -it's arguably worse: if you think of the Fall of Troy you get the idea: it looks harmless and it is a hidden nightmare.
It doesn't replicate or copy: essentially it lets someone else, an invisible hacker, control your computer whil;e making it look as though you're in control: a few symptoms

Your CD-ROM drawer opens and closes by itself
Your computer screen flips upside down or inverts
Your wall paper or background settings change by themselves
Documents or messages print on your printer by themselves
Your right and left mouse buttons reverse
Your computer plays recordings of things recorded in your computer room
Programs load or unload by themselves
Strange chat boxes appear on your computer and you are forced to chat with some stranger


A quick glossary (not original in any way) that might help.

Virus

A virus is a program that propagates itself by infecting other programs on the same computer. Viruses can do serious damage, such as erasing your files or your whole disk, or they may just do silly/annoying things like pop up a window that says "Ha ha you are infected!" True viruses cannot spread to a new computer without human assistance, such as if you trade files with a friend and give him an infected file (such as on a floppy or by an email attachment).
Worm

Like a virus, a worm is also a program that propagates itself. Unlike a virus, however, a worm can spread itself automatically over the network from one computer to the next. Worms are not clever or evil, they just take advantage of automatic file sending and receiving features found on many computers.
Trojan horse

This is a very general term, referring to programs that appear desirable, but actually contain something harmful. The harmful contents could be something simple, for example you may download what looks like a free game, but when you run it, it erases every file in that directory. The trojan's contents could also be a virus or worm, which then spread the damage.
Cracker

Crackers are often mistakenly called "hackers". Crackers are the "bad guys" who seek to "crack" or gain unauthorized access to computers, typically to do malicious things e.g. to steal credit card information or crash the computer. Crackers might do this by writing a virus, worm, or Trojan horse. Alternatively, they may just exploit weaknesses in the computer's operating system in order to gain entry. Many crackers will install a "backdoor" which allows the cracker to "remote control" your computer over the internet, such as to distribute child porn or perform a denial of service attack against somebody else. Most crackers are just bored, anti-social kids who aren't particularly smart and just take advantage of well-known, existing exploits or the gullibility of the typical internet user.
Hacker

When used properly, this term refers to 0good guys" who are talented computer programmers. They enjoy solving challenging problems or exploring the capabilities of computers. True hackers subscribe to a code of ethics and look down upon the illegal and immoral activity of crackers. When the press uses "hackers" to describe virus authors or computer criminals who commit theft or vandalism, it is not only incorrect but also insulting to true hackers.


[Edited on 4-8-2003 by Estragon]

Makes me wonder what he downloaded first in order to get the trojan... thats how it works you download something you think is rather innocuous (like a screen saver) and bam! You are infected with a trojan. Thats why I dont download anything except from repubtable companies (like Microsoft- ahem cough cough

Very sound advice from Shuby, there: adware is often a cause, too -I recently got attacked by the Chekin Trojan while looking at some educational book offers! Not the end of the world: "regedit etc." but always annoying and tedious.