Emotet Trojan is a highly advanced and sophisticated malware in today’s world. First detected in 2014, it is deemed as one of the most prevalent threats of the decade. After a dormant period, Emotet Trojan's campaign was found attacking computers in Japan. It commonly functions as a downloader or dropper of other malware on PCs and other devices.
Emotet got access to various organizations’ email boxes in Japan using phishing methods and around nine types of malware-laced files have been found attached to the emails, according to the reports.
Emotet Trojan is also known as Heodo -- a Malware strain and a cybercrime operation that was originally designed in the form of a banking Trojan, to infiltrate foreign devices and spy on sensitive data.
Due to its effective combination of persistence and network propagation, Emotet is infamous for being able to easily deceive basic antivirus programs as it hides from them.
Once the system gets infected, the malware spreads like a computer worm and attempts to invade other devices in the network. It's worth noting that it is a very popular delivery mechanism for banking Trojans, such as Qakbot and TrickBot.
As soon as the Trojan gets installed, it will either cipher the information on the victim’s computer or prevent the device from functioning appropriately. Moreover, these activities can lead to ransomware deployment or additional spam email campaigns.
The reports on Emotet discovered that malware is spreading by installing malicious packages using the built-in feature of Windows 10 and even Windows 11. The feature is called installer, and this technique has already been reported in previous Trojan campaigns.
In a recent report, CISA and MS-ISAC discovered that since august they have noticed a significant increase in malicious cyber operations targeting states and local governments with Emotet phishing emails, enlisting Emotet Trojan as one of the most prevalent ongoing cyber threats.
