Trojan Horse
Thursday, November 5, 2009 2:37
In security, a Trojan Horse is similar but not the same as it was described in Greek mythology in which the Greeks presented the city of Troy with a wooden horse in which they had hidden their soldiers. After the Trojan Horse was inside the city and night had fallen, the soldiers emerged from the wooden horse and overtook the city.
A Trojan Horse in the security field is a software program that appears to be harmless and also has a useful function but, in reality, has a hidden function buried inside the programming code. The hidden function can include a variety of possibilities such as a installing a key stroke logger, opening a backdoor to allow remote access to your computer system, installing a virus, launching a worm, or a variety of other possibilities, none of them good for you or your business.
“Trojan Horse programs” is a general term for any type of program that does something unknown to the user while still acting like or actually doing what the user thought the program would do. This includes screen savers, games, useful software tools, anti-virus programs, movies, or other similar type of software applications.
Trojan programs can be distributed and disguised using a variety of methods. Due to this fact, identification of Trojan Horse software programs is becoming more difficult. Some security measures for this type of malware can be taken, such as using anti-virus and anti-spyware programs along with watching what websites you visit, downloading software only from trusted sources, scanning the software before installing it and even scanning for Trojans after installing the software program. Bottom line–Trojan Horses are just another form of malicious software that are used to destroy, gain access or steal information off your network(s).
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