What is Trojan Horse? 5 Ways To Prevent It

Introduction to Trojan Horse

A Trojan horse is a form of malicious program or software that looks legitimate but can be dangerous enough to hijack your device. A Trojan Horse can damage, disrupt, steal, and even harm your data or network. A Trojan represents itself as a legit request or file to trick you. A trojan horse will try to control your device to load and run. 

Once a Trojan is installed on your device, it will start carrying out the activity for which it is designed. Sometimes a Trojan is referred to as a Trojan virus, however, it is not completely true. Viruses tend to replicate. But, a trojan can’t do that. A trojan horse must be created and operated manually.

How Does Trojan Horse Works?

To complete an activity, a Trojan has to be performed by the user. Trojan virus can infect several devices — for instance:

• A user is the target of a phishing or other social engineering attack by clicking or open an attachment to an infected email link.
• A user sees an antivirus pop-up that states that your system is infected and induces you to download a program to clear it up. However, users actually download a Trojan to their device.
• Also, a user enters a malicious website and the website suggests downloading a specific program. The user downloads the program from that non-trustworthy website whose publisher is anonymous.
• Attackers can install a Trojan via unauthorized access of a software weakness or breach.
• Hackers create a Wi-Fi hotspot network that seems like it is a user. When you join this network, the trojan gives access to your website your browse. 

In regard to trojans, the term “Trojan dropper” is often used. Helping programs for several malware types, including trojans, are droppers and downloaders. They are usually implemented as simple apps or scripts. It carries no malicious activity itself, rather, it creates the path for cyberattacks by downloading, using, and installing the essential malicious modules.

Most Common Types of Trojan Horse

The following are the most common types of the trojan horse:

• Backdoor trojan: A backdoor trojan can allow an attacker to access and control a device from a backdoor remotely. This allows the hacker to do all the things they want on your systems, such as file removal, computer rebooting, data stealing, or virus download. The creation of botnet via a network of zombie computers is often done using a backdoor trojan.
• Banker Trojan: A Trojan banker is intended to attack the financial information and bank accounts of users. It seeks to steal credit and debit cards, e-payment, and internet banking data.
• Distributed Denial of service (DDoS) Trojan: This Trojan malware performs attacks via overloading a traffic network. It will send numerous requests to overwhelm a target web address from a system or group of computers and create a service denial.
• Trojan-Downloader: A Trojan downloader targets an infected malware PC and then downloads and installs new malware. This includes further trojans or other malware types such as adware.
• Exploit Trojan: An exploit trojan software includes code or data which exploits certain vulnerabilities within a computer or application. The cybercriminal targets individuals using a phishing-attack approach and use the code in the software to exploit a known vulnerability.
• Remote Access Trojan: This type of malware provides an attacker with complete control over a user’s computer, similar to a backdoor Trojan. The cybercriminal retains access to the device over a distant network, which is used to rob or spy out information to a user.
• Trojan Game thief: This Trojan is specifically designed to rob users playing online games from user account information.

How Can a Trojan Horse Be Removed?

Your computer may be infected with a Trojan horse if the computer starts acting unusual after installing new software. The new program needs to be uninstalled to remove it from the system. Because certain trojans don’t display on the program list, suspicious software should be checked in the computer’s registry database. If a program has an unusual name, the entry should be deleted for that application. The Trojan will have other software installed which must be deleted properly. It is a vital point to remember.

Even if the harmful software is uninstalled and the registry key has been deleted, a trojan horse or other malware is still present. The user needs to start a complete computer scan with an anti-virus scanner like Bitdefender in order to find it. All risks should be identified and the user should be notified about the malware’s name. Moreover, the scanner normally offers the procedures necessary to eliminate Trojan and the virus from the system completely.

5 Ways To Prevent Trojan Horse

As always, the greatest protection against Trojan horse is a mix of complete antivirus protection and solid cybersecurity tactics:

• Be careful when downloading: You should never fully trust the download or installation of software from the websites.
• Be alert of threats of phishing: Never open an appendix, click a link, or execute a program that you don’t know about in an email.
• As soon as updates are available, upgrade your operating system software: You should also review other software updates that you use on your computer in addition to operating system upgrades. Security patches are regularly used for updates to protect you against dangers.
• Don’t visit websites that are unsafe: Look for websites with safety certificates — the URL should start with https:// instead of http://, the “s” means “secure” and the padlock emblem should also be in the address bar.
• Avoid clicking on pop-ups or banners: Do not click on the unknown, unreliable pop-ups that warn you that your device is infected or that it offers a miracle solution. This is a common tactic of a trojan horse.

Conclusion

Just as with protection against common threats to cybersecurity, effective security software should be your primary safeguard. You should use an effective anti-virus that quickly warns you when a Trojan horse is found on your device.