Trojan Horse Scams Explained By a New York City Defense Attorney
A trojan horse is a computer program which seems useful or which seems desirable. It is named after the story of the famous Trojan Horse, which legends say was a large wooden horse that was used by Greeks to enter the city of Troy in order to win a war. Trojan horses are downloaded onto computers by the owner of the computer and, like the Greek soldiers sneaking into Troy, there is a secret program which is snuck onto the computer. This program generally gives control to the person who wrote the code for the trojan horse. Trojan horses often affect many computers, all of which can be controlled and made to do things by the creator of the program. The computers which are being controlled are sometimes called a botnet and the controller is called a botmaster.
Creating and distributing trojan horse computer software is illegal, as is managing a botnet and using computers for malicious purposes. Defendants who are involved with a trojan horse scam can be charged with very serious computer crimes, including violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse act. There is the potential for decades of imprisonment if convicted, especially as trojan horses are often installed on hundreds or thousands of computers so defendants can face multi-count indictments. It is imperative to take charges seriously, which means contacting a New York City defense lawyer with extensive experience handling computer crimes cases.
Bukh Law Firm, PLLC is a criminal defense law firm trusted by some of the world’s most notorious cyber criminals. Our firm has the technical knowledge and strong background in computer crimes laws necessary to help you aggressively fight charges. Give us a call right away so we can immediately go to work helping you to get the best possible outcome when you’ve been accused of computer fraud crimes.
Understanding Trojan Horse Scams
Trojan horses are generally spread through the use of some type of social engineering. For example, emails may be sent which appear to be from a friend, which have subject lines which encourage people to open them, or which look like important forms which must be filled out. An unsuspecting computer user opens the email, clicks on the form, or downloads the attachment which has been included. This triggers the download of the malware, which infects the user’s computer without the user even knowing the program is there.
In some cases, trojan horses are hidden in files people want to download. There may be a program created which promises to allow the user to do something, or the trojan horse may be hidden in a file that pretends to be something else like a popular game or movie download. The user downloads the file unsuspecting and unaware of the fact he is putting malware on his computer.
Once the trojan is installed, the creator of the trojan horse usually has complete control and can use the computer for many different purposes including using the machine to send spam; using the machine to mine for cryptocurrencies; using the computer to conduct illegal activities; stealing financial information or people’s identities; installing ransomware; theft of data; and keystroke logging. The uses are virtually limitless and the creator of the trojan with control over hundreds or thousands of computers can do virtually anything he wants with all of those computers- often without the actual computer owners being aware anything is happening.
Getting Help from a New York City Computer Crimes Lawyer
Bukh Law Firm, PLLC provides legal representation to clients accused of state and federal crimes, including computer crimes related to trojan horse scams. If you have been accused of creating or distributing a trojan horse or any other related offenses, give us a call today so we can begin building your defense strategy.
