GC: n
CT: Trojan horse programs are named after one of the most famous deceptions in history. In ancient Troy, the Greek army appeared to leave the war ravaged shores of Troy, but left a large wooden horse in what appeared to be a peace gift. Within the Trojan horse lay an elite group of Greek warriors, unbeknownst to the City of Troy. Once inside the City, the elite warriors quickly and efficiently performed their planned operation and captured the City.
Software Trojans masquerade as an application or file that entice a user to open it. A Trojan horse may copy itself on to the compromised computer, but it doesn’t make copies of itself and spread like a virus which is a key difference between a Trojan and a virus. While most Trojans only execute their own malicious code, some Trojans may actually perform the actions of the file they pretend to be, but then they execute their own malicious code on the compromised computer. Other Trojans make it appear that they are performing the desired actions, but in reality do nothing but trigger their malicious routines.
Trojans arrive on to compromised computers in a variety of ways. These methods distribute the Trojan, often as rapidly as possible, so that the Trojan can maximize the opportunity to perform its main function in a large user population before they are detected by antivirus software.
One of the most common methods is for the Trojan to be spammed as an email attachment or a link in an email. Another similar method has the Trojan arriving as a file or link in an instant messaging client. These methods often rely on social engineering techniques to tempt the user to click on the link or open the file since many of these emails and instant messages appear to come from people the user knows. These techniques will play on a user’s curiosity about the big new item such as a celebrity scandal, crisis, catastrophe, or major global event.
S: Symantec – https://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2004-021914-2822-99&tabid=2 (last access: 3 December 2016)
N: 1. Trojan (pn): From the Old English Troian “of or pertaining to ancient Troy, from Latin Trojanus, from Troia, Troja “Troy,” from the Greek name for the city, said to be from Tros, name of a king of Phrygia, the mythical founder of Troy.
horse (n): From the late Old English horsian “to provide with a horse or horses.
From the large hollow wooden horse filled with Greek soldiers and introduced within the walls of Troy by a stratagem. First Known Use: 1837.
2. A program designed to breach the security of a computer system while ostensibly performing some innocuous function.
3. After besieging the walls of Troy for ten years, the Greeks built a huge, hollow wooden horse, secretly filled it with armed warriors, and presented it to the Trojans as a gift for the goddess Athena, and the Trojans took the horse inside the city’s walls. That night, the armed Greeks swarmed out and captured and burned the city. A Trojan horse is thus anything that looks innocent but, once accepted, has power to harm or destroy—for example, a computer program that seems helpful but ends up corrupting or demolishing the computer’s software.
4. Trojan horse: term and definition standardized by ISO/IEC; term standardized by CSA International.
5. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the painting The Building of the Trojan Horse (1760) by Giovanni Domenico Tiepoloand and the book Zero Day. Trojan Horse (2012) written by the Microsoft Technical Mark Russinovich.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=trojan; http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=horse (last access: 2 December 2016); MW – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Trojan%20horse (last access: 2 December 2016). 2. OD – https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/trojan_horse (last access: 2 December 2016). 3. MW –https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Trojan%20horse (last access: 2 December 2016). 4. TERMIUM PLUS – https://goo.gl/PriwBk (last access: 2 December 2016). 5. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/giovanni-domenico-tiepolo-the-building-of-the-trojan-horse (last access: 3 December 2016); CDL – https://goo.gl/EkA0H6 (last access: 2 December 2016).
SYN: Trojan, Trojan horse program, Trojan program.
S: TERMIUM PLUS – https://goo.gl/PriwBk (last access: 2 December 2016)
CR: antivirus , computer science, computer virus, computer worm, malware, software , spyware.
