A few years ago, my friends Windows XP computer was infected with a Trojan horse, likely due to the habit of casually opening random links and email attachments. While the exact email triggering the attack was unknown, inbox was regularly filled with scam emails from various sources due to his carelessness in providing his email address on subscription websites. The Trojan horse, once installed, logged keystrokes, and sent the data to a remote server, compromising passwords and personal conversations. Detection occurred a few days later when he installed anti$-$malware software, which successfully removed Trojan, prompting him to adopt more cautious online security practices.

His initial and fundamental error was thoughtlessly providing his email on various subscription websites. This was followed by the careless act of clicking on suspicious links and attachments in emails. Moreover, He lacked awareness about computer security and threats in general, which contributed to the success of the attack. To counter the Trojan horse, he had to rely on antivirus and malware programs for detection and cleanup. As a precaution, he backed up essential files and reset the passwords for email accounts. The success of the attack can be attributed to his overall ignorance about computer security, the habit of opening links from untrusted sources, and the absence of robust antivirus$/$malware software at that time. With a more cautious approach, these mistakes could have been avoided, preventing the intrusion altogether.