Emotet Dismantled: Is This the End of Malware?

Europol has just announced the dismantling, thanks to international cooperation between police and judicial authorities around the world, of the “Emotet” network. This botnet network has been at the origin of numerous cybercrime operations for more than 6 years. International organizations, companies, and states have been regularly infected by Emotet leading to the increase in ransom demands, recalls Max Heinemeyer, Threat Hunting director of Darktrace. Thanks to containment last year, the authorities deplored the resurgence of cyberattacks linked to the Emotet network and its malware.

Investigators have now taken control of its infrastructure as part of coordinated international action. For  Sherrod DeGrippo, Director of Emerging Threats at Proofpoint, “ Emotet has been rife for many years. At Proofpoint, we've been following TA542, the actor behind the botnet, since 2014. Since then, Emotet has grown into one of the world's biggest cyber threats. What makes this malware particularly dangerous for organizations is that it has been the main anchor for the future deployment of other banking Trojans. Right now, any classic banking Trojan can lead to devastating ransomware attacks. Their campaign volume is generally large, and one can observe hundreds of thousands of emails per day when Emotet is active. 

At this point, it's hard to say what this global action will bring. Law enforcement events can and have had a varying impact on disrupting technology and cybercrime groups of this magnitude. Considering that this appears to be a crackdown on Emotet's very infrastructure, this could truly be the end of malware. In addition, if members of the TA542 group were apprehended or even disturbed in one way or another, it could have a significant impact on the potential for future operations ”.

Authorities in eight countries - including France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany - have managed to take control of Emotet. For  Adolf Streda, malware analyst at Avast, this dismantling “is a key step in the fight against cybercrime. Emotet has been like a Swiss army knife, with features to both steal internet users 'passwords, steal money from their bank accounts, but also add victims' devices to botnets, to launch new campaigns. phishing. It used powerful concealment methods, to avoid being captured by antivirus solutions, and it was offered by its creators as malware as a service to other cybercriminals. Having such a wide reach and so many features is why having it disarmed by the authorities is good news for the cybersecurity world. "

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