Malicious programs in the Trojan horse family pose a great threat to computer users. Trojans are generally associated with terrible actions such as:
- Theft of an individual’s data
- Espionage
- Banking fraud
- System corruption
These are just but a few of the possible harmful effects associated with these widespread malicious computer programs. To learn how to protect yourself from these threats, you need to fully understand what they’re capable of, as well as the tactics they use to spread and infect computers.
In this post, we’re going to explain in detail how to detect and get rid of Gracewire Trojan.
What is GraceWire Trojan?
The Gracewire Trojan is a subtle threat that secretly infiltrates your computer, initiating various harmful processes unbeknownst to you. This malicious program is an information-stealing Trojan that not only targets a wide variety of data but also causes severe issues. The GraceWire Trojan can easily take over your computer’s full control process.
The stolen information by these Trojans can be used for nefarious activities like blackmailing individuals or disseminating more phishing emails.
What Can the GraceWire Trojan Do?
The primary objective of these clandestine intruders is to seize control of your computer and collect as much data as they can. Their presence also makes it easy for other malware entities to infiltrate your computer. The most noticeable consequences of such an infection range anywhere from performance issues to failure to run a program and use certain features.
There are several actions that the GraceWire Trojan can do on the infected computer. Hackers have the luxury of choosing from the list of functionalities which one they would like to run depending on their goal. Some of these functions include:
Code execution
This Trojan runs commands that the hackers have programmed it to.
Data exfiltration
The malicious program collects data belonging to the user. It also steals stored files and other details from the browsers.
Remote control
The hackers can easily take over the infected computer and do whatever they wish.
Malware injection
Upon your computer’s infection with such a threat, unidentified virus files are unknowingly dropped into the system while it operates in the background.
System manipulations
The system’s settings get manipulated in the way the attackers want. Often, the computer user will notice repetitive system crashes, software errors, serious system slowdowns, and screen freezes. These signs mostly occur when the GraceWire Trojan assumes control of your computer to complete various tasks such as Bitcoin mining.
GraceWire has the potential of permanently damaging your computer and leaving you with a machine that is of no use to you. You could also experience privacy issues or become the target of a more personalized attack.
How Does the GraceWire Trojan Infect Computers?
The GraceWire Trojan is distributed through a dubious site that asks its visitors to complete “CAPTCHA” to verify that they’re not robots. When the user completes this request, a malicious Excel document gets downloaded, and once the user opens it, the GraceWire Trojan infection process starts.
GraceWire Trojan Removal
GraceWire Trojan is a secretive program that can run for quite a while before users can realize that their computers have been infected. Once you notice that your computer has been compromised, you need to act quickly to remove the threat following proper GraceWire Trojan removal instructions. This Trojan may either be removed automatically or manually.
The removal process is a complex one and gets more difficult if the malware has run for longer in the background. This further shows you that you need to terminate the intruder as soon as possible.
Such threats are highly likely to re-install themselves repeatedly if you don’t get rid of their core files. To be on the safe side, it’s advised that you download and install a robust anti-malware tool to automatically detect and remove all its malicious software components. This method is efficient and also cuts down your time significantly.
Again, the manual removal process is a lengthy and complex task. So if your computer skills are not advanced, you risk damaging your computer or not removing all the malicious files, risking a re-infection. Below is the manual removal procedure:
Step 1: Click on the “Start” button on Window’s lower-left corner.
Step 2: Select “Control Panel” then click “Programs & Features.”
Step 3: Select “Uninstall a Program.”
Step 4: Search for GraceWire.
Step 5: Click on Uninstall.
Note that this process is not guaranteed to fully get rid of GraceWire.
Conclusion
As we had mentioned earlier on, it takes a while before you can realize that a Trojan-based infection like GraceWire is in your system. It is also not mandatory for any visible symptoms to show. So, if you suspect that your computer has been attacked by GraceWire, you need to run a scan using a reliable security tool.