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What is a Trojan Horse? And How Is It Harmful To PC?

What is a Trojan Horse? And How Is It Harmful To PC?

  • 25th Jan, 2021
  • IGS Cleaner

A Trojan Horse is a program that feigns innocence at first glance but once clicked it is capable of unleashing damages to your computers greatly. This malicious program once installed is capable of delivering unexpected changes to computer settings, displaying unusual activity, even when the system is supposed to be idle—so when your computer betrays your control, it is a strong indication that a Trojan horse is residing on your computer.


History Related To Trojan Horse


The term Trojan horse came from Greek mythology. Apparently, It was used in the war of Troy, Greeks built a large wooden horse that the people of Troy pulled into the city without knowing that the Greek soldiers were hidden discreetly inside it. Upon arrival, the army emerged, opened the independent gates of Troy to let their fellow greek army in, and win the war.


In computing though, the term was first used in a 1974 U.S. Air Force report, that briefly discusses the vulnerability in computer systems. It was later said to be coined by Ken Thompson in 1983 when he received the Turing Award- for technical importance in the computer field.


Therefore metaphorically Trojan horses meant, inviting a foe into a protected territory unknowingly that will damage the base of the place.


Types of Trojan Viruses


  • Backdoor
    It gives attackers remote access to the infected computer. Backdoor Trojans are difficult to weed out once they find their way inside. They will do whatever they want when positioned-sending, receiving, launching, and deleting files, displaying unusual data, and updating the malicious programs.
  • Rootkit
    These are Trojans designed to hide certain objects or activities in your system. Rootkits effectively prevent malicious programs from being detected.
  • Banker
    Trojan Banker’s purpose is to steal your credentials and data regarding your online banking systems, e-payment systems, and credit or debit cards.
  • DDoS
    This Trojan will build up the Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Denying you to access any of your activities including websites. DDoS Trojan works by sending multiple requests – from your computer to servers of other infected computers – they will overload the target address then, which will lead to a denial of service.
  • Downloader
    Trojan-Downloaders will download and install new versions of malicious programs or third party installations onto your computer – including adware.
  • Gaming
    If you're into gaming, beware of Trojan gaming, Cybercriminals use this Trojan virus to steals user account information, login id, passwords from online gamers.
  • Ransomware
    The cybercriminals use Trojan ransomware to demand a ransom by shutting the access to files. Saying to only unblock the access, after you have accepted their terms of paying them.
  • Trojan-Spy
    Trojan-Spy programs will spy on how you’re using your computer and gather information – for example, by recording the data you enter via your keyboard, taking discreet screenshots, or getting a list of internet visited sites.
    There are several other Trojans too that affect various other targets such as- Trojan—ArcBomb (archiving files with redundant or empty data), Clicker(pay per click fraud actors), Mailfinder(robbing email addresses), SMS(texting malicious links or codes).

How To Identify A Trojan Horse Virus?


Since Trojan horses gallop and disguise themselves as legitimate system files, they are often very hard to find and destroy with conventional anti-virus and malware scanners. Specialized software tools are often necessary inside our PC’s for the identification and removal of Trojan horses.


However, it's possible to identify the presence of a trojan horse through strange behaviors displayed by a computer, these quirks could include:


  • A change in the computer's display screen, including color and resolution changing or an unnecessary tilt of the screen itself.
  • An excessive degree of pop-up ads is starting to appear, even offering solutions to those various errors, which might prompt the end-user to click on the malicious ad.
  • The Hardware of the computer specifically the mouse may start to move by itself, twitch, or will end freezing up completely onto the screen.
  • The browser's acting up, home page changing or the browser consistently redirects you to a different website than the one you want to visit. The redirected website will often contain malware when clicked.
  • Other identifiers: Files becoming inaccessible, Mysterious messages, exhibiting abnormal graphics, unrecognized programs are running in the task manager. The taskbar changing its appearance or has completely disappeared.

How To Protect Our PC From Trojan Virus or Trojan Horses?


A great way to prevent Trojan Horses is to keep your PC regularly updates, check thrice before clicking on unusual email attachments or links, or the quickest way Is to take the help of a Multifunctional PC Cleaner that is IGS Cleaner which is a comprehensive anti-malware software against Trojans and protection for other malware viruses.