Emotet Goes Down in Global Action
Multiple law enforcement agencies seized control of the Emotet botnet in a coordinated global action that they hope will be a decisive blow against one of the world's most dangerous and sophisticated computer security threats.
In a statement announcing the action, Europol described Emotet as "one of the most significant botnets of the past decade" and the world's "most dangerous" malware.
Primarily spread through spam emails (or malspam) and notorious for its frequent shapeshifting capabilities, Emotet was first identified by security researchers in 2014 as a banking malware designed to steal sensitive and private information. Later versions of the software saw the addition of spamming and malware delivery services, including acting as a gateway for dropping other banking Trojans.
Emotet uses functionality that helps the software evade detection by some anti-malware products as well as leverages worm-like features to help spread the infection to other connected computers in a network. The malware's destructive streak have cost businesses and governments up to $1 million per incident to remediate.
"Going after any botnet is always a challenging task, but the stakes were even higher with Emotet," Malwarebytes' Director of Threat Intelligence, Jerome Segura, said. "Law Enforcement agencies had to neutralise Emotet's three different botnets and their respective controllers."
The malware has no doubt been a significant thorn in the side of victims, and while it remains to be seen if this is the final chapter of the Emotet story, a new payload pushed to the infected machines is expected to wipe the malware on April 25, 2021.
In a statement announcing the action, Europol described Emotet as "one of the most significant botnets of the past decade" and the world's "most dangerous" malware.
Primarily spread through spam emails (or malspam) and notorious for its frequent shapeshifting capabilities, Emotet was first identified by security researchers in 2014 as a banking malware designed to steal sensitive and private information. Later versions of the software saw the addition of spamming and malware delivery services, including acting as a gateway for dropping other banking Trojans.
"Going after any botnet is always a challenging task, but the stakes were even higher with Emotet," Malwarebytes' Director of Threat Intelligence, Jerome Segura, said. "Law Enforcement agencies had to neutralise Emotet's three different botnets and their respective controllers."
The malware has no doubt been a significant thorn in the side of victims, and while it remains to be seen if this is the final chapter of the Emotet story, a new payload pushed to the infected machines is expected to wipe the malware on April 25, 2021.
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