- a trojan horse is malware which disguises itself as a legitimate program to trick users into downloading and running it.
- a trojan malware hides inside a seemingly regular file or application from an unverfied source or a game.
- trojan horses reuqire users to download them from a server in order for it to function. they cannot self-replicate. this separates them from viruses which are able to spread on their own through sharing infected files, such as email attachments or downloads.
- trojan horses tend to create backdoors on systems and steal information unlike viruses, they instead tend to focus on destroying files and slowing down system performance.
- examples: ILOVEYOU virus (overwrote user files, corrupted operating system files, sent itself to contacts in the user’s email), Zeus Trojan (disguised itself as legitimate software to steal banking information and login credentials)
mitigation
- strict firewal rules which only allow installations through a catalog of approved software