Topic summary
Remote access trojan
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Remote desktop software.
Malicious variants
A remote access trojan (RAT, sometimes called creepware) is a type of malware that controls a system through a remote network connection. While desktop sharing and remote administration have many legal uses, "RAT" connotes criminal or malicious activity. A RAT is typically installed without the victim's knowledge, often as payload of a Trojan horse, and will try to hide its operation from the victim and from computer security software and other anti-virus software.