what are trojans

A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is a type of malware that disguises itself as legitimate code or software, but once inside the network, attackers are able to carry out any action they were designed for. Trojans are generally spread by some form of social engineering, where a user is duped into executing an email attachment disguised to appear innocuous or by clicking on a fake advertisement on social media or anywhere else). Unlike computer viruses and worms, Trojans generally do not attempt to inject themselves into other files or otherwise propagate themselves). Once installed, Trojans may perform a range of malicious actions, such as contacting one or more Command and Control (C2) servers across the Internet and awaiting instruction, deleting, blocking, modifying, leaking or copying data, which can then be sold back to the user for ransom or on the dark web. Some common types of Trojan malware include Backdoor Trojan, Banking Trojan, and Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) Trojan. To avoid Trojan attacks, users should avoid downloading pirated media, unsolicited material, and opening links in emails unless they know exactly what it is.