Types of Trojan Horse Attacks
Trojan horses are a common type of computer virus. Their name derives from the history of Troy, where the Greeks sent a large wooden horse filled with Greek soldiers into the city, as a gift, and then ambushed the Trojans. Trojan horse viruses work by the same principle; disguised as legitimate programs, they trick the user into installing them.
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Theft Attacks
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Some Trojan horses install to a PC and steal information from it, such as bank account details, credit card information or other types of sensitive data. For this purpose, the person that designed the Trojan horse also has the virus install a key-logger program that records every keystroke.
Control Attacks
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A more dangerous type of Trojan horse attack seeks to gain control of the infected PC. Once installed, the Trojan horse allows the attacker to set up a remote connection to the infected PC and take total control of it, hacking into sensitive systems or stealing sensitive data. If this type of Trojan horse gains control of a group of computers, the attacker can carry out other types of attacks, such as denial of service.
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Utility Attacks
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Attackers use so-called "utility" Trojans in combination with other types of Trojans or viruses to deliver attacks that are more complex. Utility attackers may seek to infect a computer as an intermediate point for further attacks or infections. In addition, attackers use utility Trojans as a cover for their real identity.
Destructive Attacks
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Attackers design this type of Trojan attack strictly to cause havoc and damage to the infected PC. The effects may vary from a simple, yet annoying, change of wallpaper to the deletion of operating system files or the erasure of the entire hard drive.
Denial of Service Attacks
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DoS attacks are the most destructive attacks that Trojan horse viruses can carry out. Once a Trojan infects a large number of computers, the creator of the Trojan takes control of the infected computers and launches an attack on a server or website. Due to the high number of simultaneous connections, the server or website eventually stops working. The higher the number of computers involved in an attack, the quicker the target will fail. Attackers usually try to infect a large number of computers to minimize the time it takes for the attack to succeed and ensure that the effects are as widespread as possible.
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References
- University of Washington: Trojan Horse Attacks
- Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute: CERT Advisory CA-1999-02 Trojan Horses
- United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team: Recovering From a Trojan Horse or Virus; Michael D. Durkota and Will Dormann; 2008
- Penn State University: Denial of Service Attacks; Qijun Gu
