📢 What is Emotet and how to protect myself from Emotet?

Trojan.Emotet is back to life, that spreads through spam emails and executes via JavaScript or macro-enabled documents. Today in this post we will learn more about this trojan, how it spreads and how you can protect your systems from it's infections.

What is Emotet?

Emotet is a Trojan, that spreads using spam emails and infects a system by executing malicious scripts, macro-enabled document files and/or malicious links.

Emotet was first identified in the year 2014 and later it evolved to infect and steal user details. The first version of Emotet was designed to steal bank account details. In January 2015, a new version of Emotet was identified and added Swiss banking as targets. In 2018, a new version of Emotet was evolved that added the ability to install other malwares to infected systems. Later half of 2019, another version of Emotet started spreading which targeted German, Polish, Italian, and English victims.

How does the Emotet spread?

Primarily this trojan spreads through spam mails. The emails may look legitimate with proper brandings The early versions of Emotet executes by malicious JavaScript files, whereas the later versions executes by macro-enabled documents.

The malware knows where it is executing and if it detects the running environment as Virtual Machines (VM), it stays dormant until it finds a physical environment.

How to protect myself from Emotet?

1. Keep your operating system updated with latest patches/fixes.
2. Keep your antivirus running and update it regularly.
3. Don't download suspicious attachments or click any malicious links.
4. Use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentications for all your accounts.