Μετά από ένα σύντομο διάλλειμα δυο εβδομάδων, μια τεράστια επιχείρηση του Emotet botnet που πραγματοποιείται μέσω ανεπιθύμητων μηνυμάτων ηλεκτρονικού ταχυδρομείου βρίσκεται και πάλι σε εξέλιξη. Μέχρι πρόσφατα, οι περισσότερες επιθέσεις έχουν καταγραφεί σε χρήστες στην Ελλάδα (17.7%), ενώ εξίσου σημαντικός αριθμός attacks noted in Japan (16.5%) and Lithuania (15.3%).
According to Forrester, The botnets is one of the top cyber threats to watch out for in 2020, and with a workforce working remotely in different locations, many organizations may be more vulnerable than ever.
Botnet operations can grow in sophistication, carrying out a wide range of illegal activities such as gathering program information tourς, συλλογή κωδικών πρόσβασης, theft login credentials from banking sites or ransomware deployment.
In the recent malware of Emotet, spam usually contains stolen legitimate communication and a general "Please see attached document" lure.
Attached this time is a malicious document detected by ESET as GenScript.KLH. This is a document containing a malicious VBA, identified as VBA / TrojanDownloader.Agent, which is the beginning of a chain infection infection.
Emotet is considered particularly dangerous, as it then installs other malicious programs on the victim's computer, such as Trickbot and QBot. Trickbot and QBot have their own malicious activity, however in turn they can lead to Conti (Trickbot) or Ryuk ransomware attacks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2i-4mU-ldY
It is important to note that, despite the huge malicious operation of Emotet botnet, the action of the malicious TrickBot - which, since 2016, has infected over one million computers - remains at a very limited level thanks to the joint effort to stop ESET , Microsoft, Black Lotus Labs Threat Research by Lumen, NTT and others.
Trickbot is known to steal users' credentials from compromised computers and, more recently, it has been observed as a mechanism for carrying out more serious attacks, such as ransomware attacks.
The coordinated global operation interferes with Trickbot by destroying the command servers and control. ESET contributed to the effort by providing technical analysis, statistics, and command and control server names and IP addresses.
Dealing with such a threat may seem like a daunting task, but there are ways in which organizations can protect themselves from botnet attacks.
Businesses also need to ensure that their networks are always up to date recent security updates, preventing cybercriminals from exploiting potential vulnerabilities. In addition, as remote ports can be turned into a hacker entry point, businesses should limit access as much as possible - especially when it comes to an RDP port.
