World's most dangerous and resilient malware "Emotet" has been taken down

A joint global operation of cybersecurity experts has lead to the downfall of the Emotet botnet.

Cybersecurity executives and investigators from 8 different countries namely, Germany, the Netherlands, the FBI, and UK’s National Crime Agency worked together in this operation. Investigators also discovered a database comprising stolen usernames and passwords during the investigation.

Emotet was first discovered in 2014 and has been one of the widely used and most dangerous malware ever since. Emotet entered a system via phishing emails and fake alarming attachments. Once the attachment is downloaded, the virus quickly replicates, allowing the malware operators to send in other trojan viruses to steal sensitive information like bank data or block data to extort money.

Emotet network operators used to lease their army of botnets to other cybercriminals, who used them as a gateway for launching additional malware attacks, such as ransomware and RATs. According to Europol, it took law enforcement agencies a week to gain control of Emotet’s infrastructure.

Hundreds of malware servers worldwide were disrupted from the inside, whereas the machines controlled by Emotet are now under the control of the law enforcement authorities’ infrastructure.

The law enforcement, security vendor, and network operator communities will continue to track, monitor, and collaborate in the continuous effort to defend against this malware and other related malicious agents.

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