A group of international cyberpolice and judicial authorities have taken down Emotet, a malware dubbed as the 'most dangerous' menace on the internet. Police from Netherland, Germany, Lithuania, France, Canada, the USA, UK, and Ukraine are among participating law enforcement authorities.
In a press release, Europol calls the operation one of the essential botnets of the past decade. Known as 'Operation Laybird,' security researchers managed to disrupt Emotet's command-and-control infrastructure.
"Once this unauthorised access was established, these were sold to other top-level criminal groups to deploy further illicit activities such data theft and extortion through ransomware," the PR says.
As noted from Wired, the Ukrainian law agency released a video of a raid where computers, cash, and rows of gold bars were seized from alleged Emotet operators. The authorities are now yet to identify the hackers.
What Is Emotet Botnet?
A working Emotet is a heavily perplexing system. Believed to originate in Russia, the malware strain was first detected in 2014 before gaining popularity in 2018 through 2019.
One of the most notable attacks is when the malware held a mysterious campaign to mass-harvest millions of user emails in 2018. As ZDNet reported, despite seeming harmless, such sensitive emails could open the gate of cyber heists or ransomware deployment at some large corporations.
Emotet operates as a banking trojan in a very gentle system to steal its victims' login credentials and spy on their desktops. Basically, the strains lure its victims by sending what seems like an important document in Word, but a button to 'Enable Macros' would appear when opened. Although it may look like an innocent built-in feature, it actually opens up their computers to criminals.
What makes Emotet resilient against any takedown attempts is its vital infrastructure, which built-in "several hundreds of servers located around the world."
How to Protect Against Emotet Botnet?
Since Emotet lures its victims by sending a link or a program via email and marking them as "important," always make sure to double-check everything before clicking on a link or downloading an attachment.
If it's a link, you will see a part of its URL address on your screen's left button if you aim your pointer towards it. That way, it helps you ensure that the link you're about to access is safe.
Whether it's social media or bank login, it's also essential for you to use stronger passwords.
To check if your email has been used to deliver malicious programs, click on this Dutch National Police portal. The government provides a weekly-updated database of email addresses and usernames stolen by Emotet.
In another related news, the Ukrainian Cyberpolice Department arrested two suspects involved in the infrastructure maintenance. If found guilty, the two are to face 12 years in prison.
