Trojan horse (computing)

The term is derived from the ancient Greek story of the deceptive Trojan Horse that led to the fall of the city of Troy.

For example, where a user is duped into executing an email attachment disguised to appear innocuous (e.g., a routine form to be filled in), or by clicking on a fake advertisement on the Internet.

Although their payload can be anything, many modern forms act as a backdoor, contacting a controller who can then have unauthorized access to the affected device.

Unlike computer viruses and worms, Trojans generally do not attempt to inject themselves into other files or otherwise propagate themselves.

[10] German govware works by exploiting security gaps unknown to the general public and accessing smartphone data before it becomes encrypted via other applications.

[13] Due to the popularity of botnets among hackers and the availability of advertising services that permit authors to violate their users' privacy, Trojans are becoming more common.

[15] Recent investigations have revealed that the Trojan horse method has been used as an attack on cloud computing systems.

[16] A Trojan horse is a program that purports to perform some legitimate function, yet upon execution it compromises the user's security.