A Trojan horse is a program that seems like something safe but that performs tasks such as giving access to your computer or sending personal information to other computers. Trojans are one of the most common methods used by a criminal computer to infect your computer and collect personal information from it. Below are some basic examples of Trojan horse infections on your computer.

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Typically, the Trojan is hidden in an attachment or a free download of innocent appearance. When the user clicks on the attachment or downloads the free program, the hidden malware is transferred to their computer. Once inside, the malicious code can perform the task that the attacker designed it.

A Trojan horse is a malicious program that is presented in the wrong way and seems to be a normal and safe software. Unfortunately, this has extremely negative effects on the host computer. This happens a bit like this you see a rather interesting cleaning software that claims to maximize the performance of your system. You realize that your computer needs cleaning, so you need to install it.

What Is a Trojan Virus?

A Trojan virus is supposed to perform malicious tasks on your computer, usually without you knowing it. These tasks could be:

• Provide hackers from a backdoor to take control of your computer.
• Intervent your Internet traffic to steal information on your bank account or credit card.
• Connect your computer to a larger Internet “robot network” to conduct criminal activities such as Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
• Correct your system files and make sure your computer is not responding so that the hacker can extort money from you.
• Address email addresses or phone numbers that hackers sell to spammers.

The list below shows some of the activities that the attacker can perform using a Trojan horse.

• Use the user’s computer as part of the Botnet when you perform distributed denial of service attacks.
• Damage to the user’s computer (crash, blue screen of death, etc.)
• Stealing sensitive data such as stored passwords, credit card information, etc.
• Modification of files on the user’s computer
• Electronic money flowing through unauthorized money transfer transactions
• Connect all keys that a user presses on the keyboard and sends the data to the attacker. This method is used to collect user IDs, passwords, and other sensitive data.
• View User’s Captures
• Download browsing history data

How do Trojans work?

Here is an example of Trojan horse malware to show how it works.

You might think you’ve received an email from someone you know and click on what looks like a legitimate attachment. But you were fooled. The email came from a cybercriminal, and the file you clicked – and downloaded and opened – continued to install malware on your device. When you run the program, the malware can spread to other files and damage your computer.

How? ‘Or’ What? It varies. Trojans are designed to do different things. But you probably wish they didn’t do any on your device.

There are several types of Trojan horses:

• Backdoor Trojans – These Trojans can create a “backdoor” on a user’s computer, allowing the attacker to gain access to the machine to control it, download stolen data, and even download more malware on the computer.
• Download Trojans – The main purpose of these Trojans is to download additional content to the infected computer, such as additional malware.
• Infostealer Trojan – The main purpose of this Trojan is to steal data from the infected computer.
• Remote Access Trojan – This Trojan is designed to give the attacker total control over the computer.
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Trojan Horse – This Trojan performs DDoS attacks, designed to destroy a network by flooding it with traffic.

Trojan infection methods

Trojans can look pretty much anything from free software to music, to browser ads and seemingly legitimate applications. An unlimited number of unwise behaviors can lead to a Trojan horse infection. Here are some examples:

• Download cracked applications: Promises of an illegal free copy of software may be appealing, but cracked software or the activation key generator may hide a Trojan attack.
• Download free unknown programs: What looks like a free game or screen saver could be a Trojan horse, especially if you find it on an unreliable site.
• Open infected attachments:You receive a strange e-mail with what looks like an important attachment, such as an invoice or an acknowledgment, but it triggers a Trojan when you click on it.
• Visit suspicious websites:Some sites only need a moment to infect your computer. Others use tricks like claiming to broadcast a popular movie, but only if you download a video codec, which is really a Trojan.
• Any other social engineering that disguises itself by taking advantage of the latest trends. For example, in December 2017, a large installed base of Intel processors was vulnerable to attack due to hardware issues. The hackers took advantage of the panic that followed by simulating a patch called Smoke Loader, which installed a Trojan.

How to remove Trojan malware 

Once a Trojan is installed on your computer, its removal is similar to that of another type of malware, but it is not easy. We also have an audit guide for your Windows registry to learn how to move forward. If you are looking for tools to clean your system, RAM offers a good range of special offers, which contains familiar names from the world of antivirus.

Following these steps should help you decrease the possibility of Trojan infection:

• Use a good anti-malware application such as RAM Malware Removal. When you have a good anti-malware program in place, keep it up-to-date with the automatic update feature to always run the latest version of the software.
• Do not run any programs on your computer unless you think that it comes from a trusted source.
• Never open e-mails from unknown senders, including attachments with .exe or .vbs extensions.
• Install the latest patches available from your operating system regularly.
• Analyze CDs, DVDs, USB sticks, or any external storage device using anti-malware software before using it.
• Do not accept programs sent from instant messaging applications.
• When downloading a program from Internet sites, always scan it first.