{"id":38719,"date":"2014-10-27T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T13:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.mcafee.com\/?p=38719"},"modified":"2025-08-17T20:18:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T03:18:28","slug":"trojan-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/internet-security\/trojan-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is a Trojan Horse?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of history\u2019s great literary classics is Homer\u2019s Iliad<\/em>, which tells the story of the Trojan horse\u2014the wooden horse that the Greeks hid in to enter the city of Troy and take it over. Two thousand and some odd years later, hackers use a digital Trojan horse to hide malicious files in seemingly harmless files with the intent to attack or take over your device. A Trojan horse (or Trojan) is one of the most common and dangerous types of threats that can infect your computer or mobile device. Trojans are usually disguised as benign or useful software that you download from the Internet, but they actually carry malicious code designed to do harm\u2014thus their name.<\/p>\n

There are a variety of types of Trojans, many of which can launch sophisticated and clever attacks. Here are some types to be aware of:<\/p>\n