What is a Trojan Horse?

Wondering about what is a trojan horse? We will tell you what a trojan horse is and what you can do about it.

Trojans, sometimes called Trojan horse software are malware that is sent to a user's personal computer that will perform a given task. They are usually not self replicating. The Trojan assists in offering unauthorized access to your PC and will facilitate a task on your computer such as aiding in offering data, assisting in delivery of a payload, or helping to perform things such as denial of service.

The phrase Trojan Horse comes from the story in mythology where soldiers were hidden inside a large wooden horse. The Trojan offers the look of a nondescript or innocent piece of software in many cases or may be an add on to an actual innocent piece of software that has been designed to permit access to your pc.

The Trojan horse will permit a hacker to gain access to your computer from a remote position. Once the Trojan has been put on your computer the hacker can perform nearly any operation for which he has programmed the Trojan. The degree to which the hacker can control your system is limited by the design of the Trojan but also of the privileges that the user has on the PC.

How It Effects You

Those things which a Trojan horse might be used for on your computer system include:

• Distributed Denial of Service or spamming
• Theft of Data
• Installation of various types of software
• Uploading or Downloading files
• Keystroke logging on your pc
• Deleting or modifying your files
• Viewing or copying your files.
• Outwardly scan other computer networks for a way in.

The Trojan needs to interact with a hacker in order to do the job they were sent for. The Trojan hides and waits for the opportunity to do the job. It has a different purpose than it appears to have in most cases.

How You Get Them

The means you would get a Trojan include:

• Downloading software applications
• Executable content found on a website
• An attachment of your email
• An Exploit or security breach in your web browser or in a media player, an instant messenger or some other software that has been exploited to permit the installation.

What to Do About it

Trojans can be picked up literally anywhere, which is what makes a good antivirus software imperative for you to have and use as you are interacting on the internet.

An antivirus program is designed to assist you in finding and deleting Trojans or may in fact prevent them from ever being installed. It is possible to remove a Trojan by hand but it takes a complete understanding of how it was installed and what its purpose is, or the method of operation to do it completely .

Trojan horses are becoming much more popular for use among those who are trying to steal data, identities, or to perform denial of service attacks. Making sure that you have adequate antivirus protection is helpful when using the internet.

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