trojan horse
- noun
- /ˈtroʊdʒən hɔrs/
- Texting
:
caballo de Troya
- The attachment contains a virus or trojan horse which then gives the hacker access to any system that the attachment is downloaded onto.
Examples
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So getting the Trojan horse to be benign is a big deal.
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They're using the Iron Patriot as a trojan horse.
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You can anticipate one hundred percent detection of 'In-the-Wild' viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and even outstanding detection of trojan horses.
Blog text (2) -
The email contained an attachment that was a trojan horse, secretly allowing the hacker to access the computer.
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Many users unknowingly downloaded a trojan horse disguised as a game, compromising their personal information.
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To protect against cyber threats, it's important to have software that can detect any potential trojan horse lurking in files.
Synonyms
137
3.3
A harmful computer program that copies itself and can damage files
43
4.3
Programs that harm computers or let someone access them without permission
3
9.8
A hidden bad program that lets someone control a computer without permission
A harmful computer program that looks safe but damages your files
Software that harms computers, for example by stealing data
How Harmful
- Specialized
8
7.9
- Specialized
26
7.4
- Texting
- Specialized
21
4.8
- Specialized
2
4.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
Trojan + horse
The malware sense of 'trojan horse' depends on the mythological story of a deceptive wooden horse and is a conventionalized metaphor; a learner who only knows the literal constituents ('Trojan' as from Troy, 'horse' as the animal) cannot infer the meaning 'hidden malicious program' without that cultural knowledge. Although many languages use the same metaphor, the mapping from the literal words to the technical sense is idiomatic and not compositionally predictable for B1 learners.
Etymology
Trojan horse comes from an old story: Greek soldiers hid inside a big wooden horse that looked like a gift, and the people of Troy brought it inside their city walls. That's why a 'trojan horse' today means something that looks helpful but actually hides danger, like a program that secretly harms your computer.