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	"created_at": "2026-04-06T00:06:07.009661Z",
	"updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:21:14.351193Z",
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	"sha1_hash": "925bab09b7fd0c6f9579ccb15d40bb7dda345104",
	"title": "Emotet Is Back and Is Deadlier Than Ever! A Rundown of the Emotet Malware",
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	"authors": "",
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	"plain_text": "Emotet Is Back and Is Deadlier Than Ever! A Rundown of the\r\nEmotet Malware\r\nBy Vinugayathri Chinnasamy\r\nPublished: 2022-03-21 · Archived: 2026-04-05 14:45:13 UTC\r\nEmotet is a type of malware and a cybercrime operation that is believed to have originated in Ukraine. The Emotet\r\nmalware was first detected in 2014. After that, it was considered extremely dangerous and one of the most harmful\r\nthreats of the decade because of how it evolved. What started as a malware strain grew into an entire cybercrime\r\norganization, selling system access acquired through the malware to other cybercrime gangs like the Ryuk gang\r\nand ransomware operations.\r\nImage source: Proofpoint\r\nThrough a collaborative effort between authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, the US, the UK, France,\r\nLithuania, Canada and Ukraine, with international activity coordinated by Europol and Eurojust, cyber law\r\nenforcement units disrupted Emotet operations, took control of its botnet infrastructure and made arrests in\r\nUkraine in January 2021.\r\nIn November 2021, however, new potential cases of Emotet cropped up. Luca Ebach, a security researcher at G\r\nData, posted a blog on November 15 2021, in which he stated, “We observed on several of our Trickbot trackers\r\nthat the bot tried to download a DLL to the system. According to internal processing, these DLLs have been\r\nidentified as Emotet.”\r\nOn December 08 2021, Intel 471 stated, “Last month, Intel 471 observed the emergence of Emotet, a notorious\r\nstrain of malware that had been dormant for most of 2021 after law enforcement agencies forced it offline.”\r\nCybersecurity experts and researchers from multiple cybersecurity companies have warned that Emotet has indeed\r\nreturned. In addition, they are experiencing an increase in Trickbot infections, a trojan malware that infects\r\nMicrosoft Windows and other operating systems and extensively spreads using Emotet infected systems. New\r\nEmotet samples were also discovered in November 2021, which had a similar code to the malware taken down in\r\nJanuary.\r\nhttps://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/a-rundown-of-the-emotet-malware/\r\nPage 1 of 3\n\nHow Did Emotet Operate?\r\nIn early 2014, when Emotet was first detected, it was a trojan malware targeted at banks and financial institutions\r\nwith the purpose of hijacking hosts and stealing banking credentials.\r\nOver time, the malware strain evolved and was reconfigured to work as a ‘loader,’ a malware strain that hijacks a\r\nsystem and gives the hijackers access to download additional payloads onto the host. These payloads can be any\r\nexecutable code, like ransomware code. The first strains of the virus were spread through email attachments. \r\nEmails disguised as invoices, shipping details, COVID-19 information, etc., with infected Word files were sent to\r\nvictims, and these emails appeared to come from known senders. The Emotet group used this guise to lure\r\nunsuspecting victims into downloading and opening these Word files.\r\nOnce opened, the Word file would prompt users to enable macros. Once enabled, the malicious code inserted in\r\nthe Word file would execute through the macros and install the Emotet malware on the victim’s computer.\r\nImage source: Trend Micro\r\nThe Emotet operation then evolved into two streams of cybercrime:\r\n1. One was the delivery of malicious code to victims’ computers. The Emotet group would inject either their\r\nown malware or malicious code from other cybercrime gangs (like ransomware code) onto computers\r\ninfected with Emotet.\r\n2. The second was selling the access to infected systems to other cybercrime units, similar to an\r\nInfrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) model. \r\nThis later became known as malware-as-a-service (MaaS) and cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) in the cybersecurity\r\ncommunity. It was discovered that the Emotet network was used to rent access to infected computers to the Ryuk\r\ngang for ransomware operations.\r\nThis made Emotet particularly dangerous. Potentially, any cybercrime agency could run their operations by\r\n‘renting’ infected servers from Emotet or hiring the Emotet group to run their malicious code.\r\nhttps://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/a-rundown-of-the-emotet-malware/\r\nPage 2 of 3\n\nThe Emotet group created a botnet of infected computers by systematically infecting systems across the globe.\r\nThe malware later evolved and would automatically use the contacts on an infected computer to send automated\r\nphishing emails, increasing the botnet’s size.\r\nEvents Leading to Emotet’s Destruction\r\nEmotet was known to have run three separate botnets as of September 2019, Epoch 1, Epoch 2 and Epoch 3.\r\nEmotet operations were detected globally in July 2020. The main malware being injected was TrickBot and Qbot,\r\nboth of which were used primarily to steal banking account credentials and automate the spread of Emotet.\r\nAdditionally, researchers had uncovered that the malicious files being spread would install malware that would\r\nrun a PowerShell script to pull payloads from other malicious websites and infected systems. \r\nLater in November 2020, Emotet operations extended to using parked domains to distribute payloads to infected\r\nsystems.\r\nIn January 2021, Europol and Eurojust teamed up with other cybercrime authorities worldwide and launched a\r\nmassive attack against the Emotet group. By then, the Emotet botnet was hundreds of servers wide and spread\r\nacross the globe. \r\nThrough the joint efforts of international cybercrime units, law enforcement was able to gain control of Emotet’s\r\ninfrastructure and dismantle it from the inside. To cripple the group completely, a new approach was implemented.\r\nInfected machines were redirected to a law enforcement-controlled infrastructure to prevent any remote control by\r\nhackers.\r\nProtecting Against Emotet\r\nMicrosoft Windows computers are particularly vulnerable. Systems running Windows should be up-to-date\r\nwith the latest patches for Windows.\r\nThe Emotet malware is still being circulated via email. Do not download or click any suspicious file or\r\nlink. Malicious emails appear to come from contacts, so beware of emails that seem legitimate as well.\r\nUse cybersecurity software to protect local files and browsing activity.\r\nUse heuristic detection with the help of Indusface WAS or manual pen-testing\r\nFinal Words\r\nThe return of Emotet is especially problematic for businesses because of its tie to ransomware. However,\r\nbusinesses can protect their servers from being infected with proper precautions. Educate employees and users\r\nwithin the organization network about best practices for emails to stay safe.\r\nSource: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/a-rundown-of-the-emotet-malware/\r\nhttps://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/a-rundown-of-the-emotet-malware/\r\nPage 3 of 3",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"Malpedia"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/a-rundown-of-the-emotet-malware/"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"a-rundown-of-the-emotet-malware"
	],
	"threat_actors": [],
	"ts_created_at": 1775433967,
	"ts_updated_at": 1775791274,
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