TROJ_ZCLICK.A

TROJ_ZCLICK.A is used to generate income for its designers and shady marketers by displaying sponsored websites on the computers TROJ_ZCLICK.A infects. TROJ_ZCLICK.A may display full screen windows containing sponsored websites in order to generate marketing revenue at the expense of computer users. TROJ_ZCLICK.A is an evolution of the notorious banking Trojan Zbot or ZeuS. TROJ_ZCLICK.A uses ZeuS' approach to generate income in a more immediate way through pay-per-click tactics and sponsored, questionable online content. While previous versions of ZeuS would infect a computer silently in order to track banking related information from the infected Web browser, TROJ_ZCLICK.A will display full screen windows containing sponsored websites, preventing computer users from accessing their files or opening other websites. The combination of the ZeuS' attack capabilities with the monetization methods used commonly by adware and other PUPs has made TROJ_ZCLICK.A a significant threat to computer user's security.

TROJ_ZCLICK.A may Become a Can of Worms to Your Computer

TROJ_ZCLICK.A will open a sponsored website every time the affected computer user tries to open a file or connect to the Internet. TROJ_ZCLICK.A also can take over the victim's mouse, moving the cursor around and scrolling through the opened websites to ensure that computer users are exposed to sponsored content. Although it is possible to use a keyboard shortcut to return to the Desktop or continue browsing, the websites opened by TROJ_ZCLICK.A will continue to open and run in the background. TROJ_ZCLICK.A differs from other ZeuS-related attacks in that TROJ_ZCLICK.A is not designed to obtain the victims' banking information or other sensitive data. Rather, TROJ_ZCLICK.A is specifically designed to carry out these adware strategies.

The Threatening Actions of TROJ_ZCLICK.A and Other ZeuS Variants

There is no question that the ZeuS Trojan is among the most damaging and widespread threats in history. Over the years, PC security researchers have uncovered variants like Citadel, Zbot and others which take ZeuS' capabilities to other platforms such as to mobile devices or for tracking specific types of information. TROJ_ZCLICK.A is notorious in that TROJ_ZCLICK.A combines this threat's capabilities with pay-per-click tactics to create a new monetization model.