A Trojan horse, commonly referred to simply as a “Trojan,” is a malicious program that is installed onto a host to perform a desired, or overt, function, but instead conceals and executes hidden, or covert, programs within its code to create backdoors, run scripts, steal information, and in some cases socially exploit untrained people into divulging personal information such as credit card numbers. The actual difference between backdoors and trojan horses have been skewed since the first trojan horse was possibly embedded in a game intended for the UNI VAC 1108 computer system in 1975, known as the Pervading Animal. The word Trojan is often synonymous with backdoor due to the inherent nature of Trojans today. Furthermore, Trojans are often confused with viruses. What makes Trojans stand apart from being classified as viruses is that the Trojan is often a stand-alone program and does not inject themselves into another program.
