{ "id": "4ddb1bf3-5ace-409a-a110-ad14c29268b1", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:16:56.946026Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:21:40.71277Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "97c60b9ab2603aef830cb80615e7c4bcd35c8b91", "title": "World’s most dangerous malware EMOTET disrupted through global action", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 295635, "plain_text": "World’s most dangerous malware EMOTET disrupted through\r\nglobal action\r\nArchived: 2026-04-05 14:01:16 UTC\r\nLaw enforcement and judicial authorities worldwide have this week disrupted one of the most significant\r\nbotnets of the past decade: EMOTET. Investigators have now taken control of its infrastructure in an\r\ninternational coordinated action.\r\nThis operation is the result of a collaborative effort between authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, the United\r\nStates, the United Kingdom, France, Lithuania, Canada and Ukraine, with international activity coordinated by\r\nEuropol and Eurojust. This operation was carried out in the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Platform\r\nAgainst Criminal Threats (EMPACT).\r\nEMOTET has been one of the professional and long lasting cybercrime services out there. First discovered as a\r\nbanking Trojan in 2014, the malware evolved into the go-to solution for cybercriminals over the years. The\r\nEMOTET infrastructure essentially acted as a primary door opener for computer systems on a global scale. Once\r\nthis unauthorised access was established, these were sold to other top level criminal groups to deploy further illicit\r\nactivities such as data theft and extortion through ransomware.\r\nSpread via Word documents\r\nhttps://www.eurojust.europa.eu/worlds-most-dangerous-malware-emotet-disrupted-through-global-action\r\nPage 1 of 3\n\nThe EMOTET group managed to take email as an attack vector to a next level. Through a fully automated process,\r\nEMOTET malware was delivered to the victims’ computers via infected e-mail attachments. A variety of different\r\nlures were used to trick unsuspecting users into opening these malicious attachments. In the past, EMOTET email\r\ncampaigns have also been presented as invoices, shipping notices and information about COVID-19.\r\nAll these emails contained malicious Word documents, either attached to the email itself or downloadable by\r\nclicking on a link within the email. Once a user opened one of these documents, they could be prompted to\r\n“enable macros” so that the malicious code hidden in the Word file could run and install EMOTET malware on a\r\nvictim’s computer.\r\nAttacks for hire\r\nEMOTET was much more than just a malware. What made EMOTET so dangerous is that the malware was\r\noffered for hire to other cybercriminals to install other types of malware, such as banking Trojans or ransomwares,\r\nonto a victim’s computer.\r\nThis type of attack is called a ‘loader’ operation, and EMOTET is said to be one of the biggest players in the\r\ncybercrime world as other malware operators like TrickBot and Ryuk have benefited from it.\r\nIts unique way of infecting networks by spreading the threat laterally after gaining access to just a few devices in\r\nthe network made it one of the most resilient malware in the wild.\r\nDisruption of EMOTET’s infrastructure\r\nThe infrastructure that was used by EMOTET involved several hundreds of servers located across the world, all of\r\nthese having different functionalities in order to manage the computers of the infected victims, to spread to new\r\nones, to serve other criminal groups, and to ultimately make the network more resilient against takedown attempts.\r\nhttps://www.eurojust.europa.eu/worlds-most-dangerous-malware-emotet-disrupted-through-global-action\r\nPage 2 of 3\n\nTo severely disrupt the EMOTET infrastructure, law enforcement teamed up together to create an effective\r\noperational strategy. It resulted in this week’s action where by law enforcement and judicial authorities gained\r\ncontrol of the infrastructure and took it down from the inside. The infected machines of victims have been\r\nredirected towards this law enforcement-controlled infrastructure. This is a unique and new approach to\r\neffectively disrupt the activities of the facilitators of cybercrime.\r\nHow to protect oneself against loaders\r\nMany botnets like EMOTET are polymorphic in nature. This means that the malware changes its code each time it\r\nis called up. Since many antivirus programmes scan the computer for known malware codes, a code change may\r\ncause difficulties for its detection, allowing the infection to go initially undetected.\r\nA combination of both updated cybersecurity tools (antivirus and operating systems) and cybersecurity awareness\r\nis essential to avoid falling victim to sophisticated botnets like EMOTET. Users should carefully check their email\r\nand avoid opening messages and especially attachments from unknown senders. If a message seems too good to\r\nbe true, it likely is and emails that implore a sense of urgency should be avoided at all costs.\r\nAs part of the criminal investigation conducted by the Dutch National Police into EMOTET, a database containing\r\ne-mail addresses, usernames and passwords stolen by EMOTET was discovered. You can check if your e-mail\r\naddress has been compromised at www.politie.nl/emocheck [unfortunately this link no longer points to an existing\r\npage at the external website]. As part of the global remediation strategy, in order to initiate the notification of\r\nthose affected and the cleaning up of the systems, information was distributed worldwide via the network of so-called Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs).\r\nThe following authorities took part in this operation:\r\nNetherlands: National Police (Politie), National Public Prosecution Office (Landelijk Parket)\r\nGermany: Federal Criminal Police (Bundeskriminalamt), General Public Prosecutor's Office\r\nFrankfurt/Main (Generalstaatsanwaltschaft)\r\nFrance: National Police (Police Nationale), Judicial Court of Paris (Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris)\r\nLithuania: Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau (Lietuvos kriminalinės policijos biuras), Prosecutor’s\r\nGeneral’s Office of Lithuania\r\nCanada: Royal Canadian Mounted Police\r\nUnited States: Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, US Attorney's Office for the\r\nMiddle District of North Carolina\r\nUnited Kingdom: National Crime Agency, Crown Prosecution Service\r\nUkraine: National Police of Ukraine (Національна поліція України), Prosecutor General’s Office (Офіс\r\nГенерального прокурора)\r\nSource: https://www.eurojust.europa.eu/worlds-most-dangerous-malware-emotet-disrupted-through-global-action\r\nhttps://www.eurojust.europa.eu/worlds-most-dangerous-malware-emotet-disrupted-through-global-action\r\nPage 3 of 3", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "Malpedia" ], "references": [ "https://www.eurojust.europa.eu/worlds-most-dangerous-malware-emotet-disrupted-through-global-action" ], "report_names": [ "worlds-most-dangerous-malware-emotet-disrupted-through-global-action" ], "threat_actors": [], "ts_created_at": 1775434616, "ts_updated_at": 1775791300, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/97c60b9ab2603aef830cb80615e7c4bcd35c8b91.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/97c60b9ab2603aef830cb80615e7c4bcd35c8b91.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/97c60b9ab2603aef830cb80615e7c4bcd35c8b91.jpg" } }