Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0 Removal

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The purpose of the following article is to inform its readers about a harmful program/malware called Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0 that has been recently reported to attack people’s computers and execute illegal and harmful tasks on them. This virus falls under the category of Trojan Horses – a particularly malicious type of dangerous software that oftentimes remains fully undetected due to their seemingly harmless appearance. Technically speaking, Trojan Horses are not actual viruses because they do not replicate once inside your PC. However, for the sake of convenience, we will refer to them as such in this article.

Spotting the threat

A major issue when dealing with Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0 or some other Trojan is that it can be really difficult to spot the infection. Most symptoms associated with this type of malware are situational and really depend on a variety of factors as well as what the virus is actually being used for. There are several typical signs of a Trojan horse attack, which will be listed next, but keep in mind that they might or might not be present in the case of a Trojan horse attack:

• Increased usage of PC resources, most notably CPU time and RAM. If you notice any of this and there is no apparent reason for it, make sure to further investigate the issue since it is highly likely that something’s not quite right.
• Obscure and sketchy online pop-ups, banners and even fake error messages that appear on your browser screen (doesn’t matter if it is Chrome, Firefox or IE)and obstruct your online experience. This is generally a symptom associated with Adware, but it’s possible to occur with Trojans too.
• System instability, sudden freezes and BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) crashes. Those can be caused by all sorts of problems that are not related an infection with malware but if you have recently opened a shady e-mail or downloaded/installed some obscure new program and the crashes started to occur, then it might be a Trojan.
• Other changes to your system. Generally, every time something odd seems to be happening to your PC and you do not know the reason for it, there’s a chance that the changes are due to some unwanted and potentially harmful program.

Dangers of Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0

There is a reason why this particular kind of malicious programs called Trojan horses are so widely spread and commonly encountered. Malicious software like Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0 can be used for all sorts of illegal purposes and hackers always seek to exploit the Trojans to their limits. Here are several examples of what a typical Trojan horse virus can be used for:

• Corrupting important OS files and messing with your system. This is probably one of the most frequent uses of a Trojan horse. Sometimes can be repaired but it is also possible that your machine gets rendered unusable due to the virus attack.
• Theft of personal data. Some Trojans excel at gathering private information about the user of the infected machine. They can use a variety of different espionage methods such as keystroke logging and monitoring of your screen. However, the most unnerving of the spying techniques should be their ability to use your personal webcam to look directly at you.
• Money theft. Via the keystroke logging method that we mentioned above, hackers are able to see everything you type on your keyboard. That way, they can gain access to your bank account password and username and use them to extract all money from the account. Most users realize what has happened when it is already way too late to do anything about it.
• Mining bitcoins. One other possibility is that your personal computer gets forced to work for the hacker by utilizing all its system resources for mining bitcoins. Whatever amount of bitcoins is gained, gets send to the hacker who’s in control of the Trojan horse.
• Spam and botnet. On top of everything mentioned so far, some Trojans can turn your machine into a part of a network that is under the control of the hacker. PC’s that are part of this botnet can be used for different malicious purposes such as sending spam messages to other users and thus spreading the malicious virus even further.

Security tips

Trojans such as Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0 are sneaky and the user often does not realize when their machine has been infected. However, if you adhere to a number of easy but very important rules, the security levels of your system would be drastically increased.

• Do not allow any of your browsers to automatically download new files. You must always be asked for a permission prior to anything getting downloaded.
• If you stumble across some suspicious-looking file on your computer with unknown origins, do not open it until you have verified that it is safe. In fact, you might directly delete it if you’re not sure what it is.
• Ensure the security of your system by installing a high-quality security program. Oftentimes, that is the only thing that can detect a Trojan, since the virus might not have any visible symptoms.
• Bear in mind that two of the most common Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0 distribution methods are spam messages/emails and illegal/shady sites with downloadable content, so make sure to stay away from those.

SUMMARY:

Welcome to our Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0 removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.

Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0 Removal

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I – Uninstallation

1. Use the Winkey+R keyboard combination, write Control Panel in the search field and hit enter.
   
2. Go to Uninstall a program under Programs.
   
3. Seek the unwanted software, select it and then click on Uninstall
   1. If you are unable to spot Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0, search for any unrecognized programs that you do not remember installing on your PC – the unwanted software might disguise itself by going under a different name.

II – Safe mode and revealing hidden files

1. Boot your PC into Safe Mode /link/
2. Reveal hidden files and folders /link/

III – Removing Shady processes

1. Go to your start menu, type Task Manager in the search field and from the results open View running processes with Task Manager.
   
2. Thoroughly look through all processes. The name Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0 might not be there, but if you notice any shady looking process that consumes high amounts of memory it might be ran by the unwanted program.
3. If you spot the process ran by Win.Trojan.Toa-5368540-0, right-click on it, open its file location and delete everything in there. Then go back to the Task Manager and end the process.
   

IV – DNS check

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1. In the start menu search box write View Network Connections and open the first result.
   
2. Right-click on the network connection you are using and go to Properties.
   
3. Select Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
   
4. If Obtain DNS server addresses automatically is not checked, check it.
   
5. Go to Advanced and select the DNS If there is anything in the DNS server addresses field, remove it and click OK.
   
6. Click OK on the rest of the opened windows.