Frankly, you may not be able to remove the Trojan from your computer. You may have to clear out your hard drive and reinstall your software. OutlookPower's official recommendation is the best way to be sure you have a clean and safe box is to buy a new hard drive (they're very inexpensive these days), install your software on the new drive, and then copy over your old files from the old drive. Otherwise, something evil could still be lurking in your machine.

How to prevent attacks by hackers
There are several ways you can prevent potential attacks by hackers. Although even the best protection is not 100% effective, you can minimize your chances of being attacked if you follow several Internet safety rules.

Keep virus protection up to date and running in the background
Make sure you run a full scan at least once a week and any time your program updates virus definitions. The reason for this is because a new virus may have entered your computer before your anti-virus protection had a "fix" for it.

Once the "fix" or definition is updated, you need to run a scan in order for it to detect and remove it. You also must remember to keep your computer on if you are running updates overnight or the updates will not run. If you don't want to do that, you want to set your times to run during the day.

Install a firewall and make sure your settings are in stealth mode
This means no one will know when you are online, so they will be unable to attempt to enter your computer. This is extremely important if you are using a laptop as they are more vulnerable because of wireless technology.

Never open attachments
Never open attachments from people you don't know, and make sure those you do know let you know they are sending you an attachment. In addition, set your anti-virus protection to scan incoming and outgoing email so that it can block any viruses before they reach your computer.

OutlookPower's official recommendation is to never open attachments, period. Even from people you do know. Remember my story about the email supposedly from my daughter's friend.

Never tell anyone your login info
Always remember that your ISP, eBay, PayPal, your bank, or anyone else will never ask for your login information in an instant message or email. If you have any doubt, call them on the phone or log in to your account using another browser window.

Use a PopUp blocker
This is another very common way that hackers get into your computer. Many times the popups have malicious software such as adware or malware attached to it, and it will automatically install itself on your computer. Once you have spyware on your computer, the hackers have a way of securing your information even with a firewall.

Although these tips do not address all of the issues, they will hopefully help you understand why you were attacked and how to prevent it in the future.

Stay safe and stay smart!

Diane Poremsky is the president of CDOLive LLC and a Microsoft Outlook MVP. She's author of Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours (Sam's, 2003) and coauthor of OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide). For questions or suggestions for future columns, write her at outlook@cdolive.com.