- Home
- About Us & Project Introduction
- What Are "Cyber Security" and "Cyber Attack"?
- Why Does Cyber Security Matter?
- International and Local Cooperation on Cyber Attacks
- Simple Steps Towards Enhanced Cyber Security
- Educating the Public
- Video Reviews & Useful Resources
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgements
Trojan Horse
A Trojan Horse is a computer program that pretends, prior to installation, to be able to carry out functions required by users, but after installation causes damage or extracts information from a computer. Sometimes, Trojan Horses do carry out functions desired by users.
This type of malware got its name from the story of Greek victory in the Trojan war. According to the myth, the Greeks sent a gift of a giant wooden horse to the city of Troy. Believing the horse to be a gift of surrender, the arrogant Trojans brought the horse into the city and made merry while Greek soldiers hid in wait of an oppurtunity to strike. After night fell, the Greek soldiers came out of the wooden horse and destroyed the city of Troy, ending the war.
Trojan horses are mainly used (or abused) in 2 ways. The first is to allow targeted control of a computer by an intruder. Trojan Horses such as Back Oriffice and Beast take webcam screenshots, shutdown the infected computer etc., much like how malware is depicted in movies.
A newer, more lucrative use of Trojan Horses is to control large groups of compromised computers and organize into a network: a botnet. Those who control botnets can rent the service of this entire fleet of zombie computers either for sending spam or conducting distributed denial-of-service attacks. Botnets are dangerous when compromised of large numbers as these can carry out co-ordinated attacks on a massive scale. Hence tech companies like Microsoft and Kaspersky are using both technical and legal methods to eliminate them.
Quick ReferenceBeal, V. (2010, June 29). The difference between a computer virus, worm and trojan horse. Retrieved from http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/virus.asp
This type of malware got its name from the story of Greek victory in the Trojan war. According to the myth, the Greeks sent a gift of a giant wooden horse to the city of Troy. Believing the horse to be a gift of surrender, the arrogant Trojans brought the horse into the city and made merry while Greek soldiers hid in wait of an oppurtunity to strike. After night fell, the Greek soldiers came out of the wooden horse and destroyed the city of Troy, ending the war.
Trojan horses are mainly used (or abused) in 2 ways. The first is to allow targeted control of a computer by an intruder. Trojan Horses such as Back Oriffice and Beast take webcam screenshots, shutdown the infected computer etc., much like how malware is depicted in movies.
A newer, more lucrative use of Trojan Horses is to control large groups of compromised computers and organize into a network: a botnet. Those who control botnets can rent the service of this entire fleet of zombie computers either for sending spam or conducting distributed denial-of-service attacks. Botnets are dangerous when compromised of large numbers as these can carry out co-ordinated attacks on a massive scale. Hence tech companies like Microsoft and Kaspersky are using both technical and legal methods to eliminate them.
Quick ReferenceBeal, V. (2010, June 29). The difference between a computer virus, worm and trojan horse. Retrieved from http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/virus.asp