Naaju Breaking News, Live Updates, Latest Headlines, Viral News, Top Stories, Trending Topics, Videos
[ad_1]
In a joint operation by several countries, police seized thousands of computers belonging to one of the world’s most dangerous hacking networks.
This is the Emotet botnet, one of the largest of the past decade and responsible for the malware (malicious program) of the same name.
Thanks to the attachments sent in the emails, Emotet gained access to the victims’ computers, then sold to criminals which installed even more dangerous malware.
Police forces from several European Union countries participated in the operation, in addition to Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, the European Police Office (Europol) and of the European Union Agency for Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (Eurojust).
Europol has described it as “one of the most important botnets of the last decade” and one of the main “openers” of computer systems in the world.
“Once the unauthorized access was established, it was sold to other high level criminal groups to implement more illegal activities, such as data theft and extortion via ransomware (programs used to hijack information and then ask for money in exchange for its dissemination), ”European police explained in a statement.
Dmitry Smilyanets, Threat Intelligence Expert at Recorded Future, believes the creator of the network and his team are unlikely to attempt to rebuild it “even if they are not arrested.”
“To have enough money withdraw in peace or embark on a new criminal adventure, ”he said.
“A functioning botnet is a very complicated and delicate system. If more than half of the infrastructure is not functioning, it is safe to say goodbye“.
How did it work?
In its early days, Emotet was a banking Trojan designed to spy on computers and steal login information.
Victims will receive a strike Word document that seemed important.
Upon opening, it prompted to “enable macros,” a seemingly innocent feature built into Microsoft Word that, when enabled, would allow attackers to gain access to the computer.
Lotem Finkelstein, threat intelligence specialist at Check Point Software, notes that he had been following Emotet for years.
“By far the most effective and widespread malware of 2020,” he says, noting that Emotet has sent email scams over the past year with more 150,000 subjects and 100,000 file names different attachments
“He’s constantly tailored his phishing emails to global interests and events (which might be of interest to) victims, like the covid-19 pandemic or big shopping seasons like Black Friday,” says Finkelstein.
And while Europol’s announcement may seem “abstract”, it aims to protect “the public from cyber threats that have caused millions of dollars in losses”.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
