Trojan horse n 1: a subversive group that supports the enemy and engages in espionage or sabotage; an enemy in your midst [syn: fifth column}, Trojan horse] 2: a program that appears desirable but actually contains something harmful; "the contents of a trojan can be a virus or a worm"; "when he downloaded the free game it turned out to be a trojan horse" [syn: trojan, trojan horse] 3: a large hollow wooden figure of a horse (filled with Greek soldiers) left by the Greeks outside Troy during the Trojan War [syn: Trojan Horse, Wooden Horse]

Trojan horse noun Etymology: from the large hollow wooden horse filled with Greek soldiers and introduced within the walls of Troy by a stratagem Date: 1837 1. someone or something intended to defeat or subvert from within usually by deceptive means 2. a seemingly useful computer program that contains concealed instructions which when activated perform an illicit or malicious action (as destroying data files); also the concealed instructions of such a program — compare virus

Trojan horse (Trojan horses) 1. If you describe a person or thing as a Trojan horse, you mean that they are being used to hide someone's true purpose or intentions. Was Colombo the emissary of Pope Paul, his Trojan horse within the Commission?... N-COUNT: usu sing, oft N for/of n [disapproval] 2. A Trojan horse is a computer virus which is inserted into a program or system and is designed to take effect after a particular period of time or a certain number of operations. (COMPUTING) N-COUNT

Trojan horse n. [coined by MIT-hacker-turned-NSA-spook Dan Edwards] A malicious security-breaking program that is disguised as something benign, such as a directory lister, archiver, game, or (in one notorious 1990 case on the Mac) a program to find and destroy viruses! See back door}, virus, worm, phage, mockingbird.

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