A Trojan horse typically appears to be which of the following?

A Trojan horse typically masquerades as a legitimate software application to deceive users into downloading and executing it. Unlike viruses and worms, which can replicate themselves and spread without user interaction, Trojans rely on the user’s trust. They often take the form of software that looks appealing or useful, such as games, utilities, or software updates, tricking users into installing them on their systems.

By appearing to be something safe or beneficial, Trojans can bypass initial security checks and gain access to a user's system with the potential to cause harm, steal data, or provide unauthorized access to attackers. The other options do not accurately describe a Trojan horse; a system virus refers to a self-replicating infection, spam emails typically do not imitate legitimate applications, and malicious network traffic represents data packets sent with harmful intentions, but without a visual or functional disguise as a benign application.